Subject: [Ltru] Clarifications (was: Re: [psg.com #1061] eliminate (or proscribe) Private Use Tags)

From: "Doug Ewell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 23:59:54 -0700

I just want to clarify a few items.  These are not intended as Last Call
action items, nor as the start of a big long discussion.

1.  The letter "x"

The letter "x" to indicate a private-use tag (or subtag) goes all the
way back to RFC 1766.  Then, as now, it is simply a letter; it does not
"stand for" anything.  Perhaps there is a hint of the concept of
"extended" or "expanded," but that is all.  (Programmers are accustomed
to the use of "x" or "ex" to mean an extended version of something that
existed before.)  There is no hidden or dark inner meaning to this
choice of letters.

2.  Consenting adults

I made a reference to "consenting adults" being able to use private-use
tags "in the privacy of their homes."  This is an unfortunate use of
en-US in a global e-mail context.  The phrase comes from American legal
history, where laws about "what consenting adults could do in the
privacy of their homes" were passed and debated and upheld and
overturned.  My intent was NOT to claim that private-use tags were for
use by adults only, or for adult-oriented material.  It was only meant
to say that private-use tags should be available for use within the
confines of a private agreement.  I regret any confusion this metaphor
may have caused.

--
Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California
http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/

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---

From: "Doug Ewell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:11:54 -0700

Randy Presuhn <randy underscore presuhn at mindspring dot com> wrote:

> Can I get a hum on whether to add the proposed text?
>
>> "The use of "x-" has no particular meaning regarding the nature of
>> the private subtags."

I have no objection to a sentence that states that the choice of the
letter "x" is not significant.

>> "The use of "x-" is to introduce the private extension of the format.
>> It may in particular be used for multilingual or punycoded subtags."

Punycode is used only for internationalized domain names.  We are
dealing with language tags, which are not part of IDNs.  Therefore,
there is no relationship and no conflict.

This is also why comparisons between "xn--" (which introduces a
Punycoded IDN) and "x-" (which introduces a private-use tag or subtag)
are spurious; they have nothing to do with each other.

>> The Alpha8 is discreminatory against internationalised subtags, as
>> punycode can imply punycoded string of different length for
>> internationalised strings of similar length.

Language tags are defined as being made up of characters within the
ASCII repertoire.  They cannot be made up of Greek or Cyrillic or
Tagbanwa characters.  Punycode is not involved.