Subject: RE: [Ltru] matching: Language Range Lists

From: "Peter Constable" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 07:17:53 -0700

> From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of
> Randy Presuhn

> Total agreement.    Our charter is quite narrow and specific regarding
> this
> deliverable.  It says:
> 
> | The second document will describe matching algorithms for use with
> | language tags. Language tags are used in a broad variety of contexts
> | and it is not expected that any single matching algorithm will fit all
> | needs. Developing a small set of common matching algorithms does seem
> | likely to contribute to interoperability, however, as it seems likely
> | that using protocols could reference these well-known algorithms in
> | their specifications.
> 
> I believe the fact that it talks about "matching algorithms" rather than
> "negotiation mechanisms" is important, and has direct consequences
> for the document.  Specifically, what we say about negotiation mechanisms
> will need to be non-normative, included merely as use cases justifying
> our decision to document specific algorithms.

I agree. For that reason, I think that if we want to include some discussion of language range lists, then (i) it should be because we think there are particular issues in relation to matching on lists of ranges that need particular consideration over and above matching a single range alone, and (ii) we should not give any specification of syntax for lists: that is entirely up to the particular negotiation protocol to determine.

Peter Constable
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From: Mark Davis <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 10:04:52 -0700

My concern with language range lists is that the lookup is *not* simply 
looking up each language until you get a match, either in the 
Accept-Language language range lists, the Apple language range lists, or 
the CLDR language range lists. So I would like *at least* an informative 
note to that effect, that people know that they should not simply apply 
the matching algorithms listed in the document to a list.

I suggest something like the following language.

2.3 Language Range Lists

A language range list is a ordered list of zero or more language ranges, 
perhaps with additional structure to give additional priorities among 
the elements of the list. These are used in Accept-Language 
[Accept-Lang], and in various implementations such as Apple's language 
lookup and CLDR's language fallback. The lookup and matching within 
language range lists require somewhat different lookup and matching 
mechanisms in order to produce reasonable results, so it should not be 
assumed that it is sufficient to serially apply the mechanisms specified 
in this document to such a list.

[Accept-Lang] Accept Language, as described in Section 14.4 of the RFC 
2616 (HTTP 1.1)

Peter Constable wrote:

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