Keld J�rn Simonsen <[email protected]> wrote:
>> The standard for two-letter language codes is ISO 639-1. There is
>> also an ISO 639-2 (actually, there are two variants) that specifies
>> three-letter language codes.
>
> Well, ISO 639-1 does not exist, yet. It is rather ISO 639 that is
> being used.
I may have been using the term too loosely. But I did visit the home
page of the ISO 639 Joint Advisory Committee, which had this to say:
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/iso639jac.html>
"The ISO 639/Joint Advisory Committee (ISO 639/JAC) has been established
to advise both the ISO 639-1/RA Registration Authority and the ISO
639-2/RA Registration Authority..."
I also visited <http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/criteria1.html>
which describes "[t]he following criteria for defining new languages in
ISO 639-1" and refers many other times to ISO 639-1. So if I am using
the term loosely, then others in a higher position of authority than me
are doing so as well. :-)
>> [The POSIX locale model] is widely regarded as inadequate for
>> covering even a reasonable subset of locale possibilities.
>
> However, this is the methodology that everybody uses, inclusive
> Microsoft (viz. another email here) and what RFC 1766 is modelled
> after. It works well for the programs I am using. What are the
> problems that you percieve here?
I had several in mind while I was writing this. One that I know has
been mentioned on this list is that if you are in a Euro country, such
as France, your fr_FR locale is not sufficient to specify the use of
the Euro currency symbol. A separate "fr_FR_Euro" locale would be
needed. This would pose a problem if you needed to switch back and
forth, and in any case the standard fr_FR locale will certainly not
automatically update itself from FRF to EUR on 2002-01-01.
(This may not be a problem if people simply ignore the locale's currency
symbol. I have never really understood why currency symbols are part of
a locale anyway, POSIX or otherwise. It is na�ve to think one will
never need to express currency values in any unit except one's local
default.)
Another example is that my preferred date format (2000-09-02) and time
format (23:59) are not supported by a default en_US locale, so I would
have to invent my own locale to handle this.
I am a Windows user and hardly ever deal directly with POSIX systems,
so this is based on my understanding of the model rather than real-world
experience. Flame-free corrections and amplifications are welcomed.
-Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:21:13 EDT