Language for taxonomic names, redux

Peter Constable petercon at microsoft.com
Wed Feb 22 23:49:14 CET 2017


But relying on a language tag to achieve style effects is not a good basis for adding a subtag since a language tag isn't necessary to define styles, and classes can just as easily be used.


Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: pigsotwing at gmail.com [mailto:pigsotwing at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Andy Mabbett
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 11:50 AM
To: Peter Constable <petercon at microsoft.com>
Cc: ietflang IETF Languages Discussion <ietf-languages at iana.org>
Subject: Re: Language for taxonomic names, redux

On 22 February 2017 at 18:48, Peter Constable <petercon at microsoft.com> wrote:
> From: Ietf-languages [mailto:ietf-languages-bounces at alvestrand.no] On 
> Behalf Of Andy Mabbett
>
>> I've set out several additional use-cases previously, including:
> ...
>>   * Selection for styling by CSS
>
> So <span class="bioTaxonomy"> isn't sufficient how?

Sufficient for what? I made no argument that such markup is not suffcemnt /merely/ for styling; I provided an example of how a language tag might be sued

> The request for a use case isn't merely asking for hypothetical ways 
> in which a subtag might possibly be used, but rather is asking for ways in which it would _likely_ be used.

It would /likely be used in the manner described.
See for eample:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Lang#Applying_styles

I know several people who already use this technique.

> you have to provide reason to believe that (a) TTS engines for the 
> particular varieties in question are likely to be created, and (b) 
> that there is a community of users that would likely markup up content so as to take advantage of that.

See the Wikipedia (& sister project) case I gave earlier. I'm quite sure that my colleagues and friends who maintain taxonomic directories (at the UK & US National History Museums, BirdGuides, BBC, BTO, RSPB, and many more) would follow suit. See also the case made by Gregor Hagedorn in 2008.

--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk


More information about the Ietf-languages mailing list