From: Peter_Constable@sil.org
Date: Sat Sep 28 2002 - 18:52:06 EDT
On 09/28/2002 04:47:49 AM tiro wrote:
>'Language system' (not 'language') in the OpenType specification actually
means
>*writing* system, i.e. a particular set of orthographic/typographic
conventions
>associated with the use of a particular script. 'Language system' is a
>misnomer -- an historical artifact of the incomplete understanding of the
>format's original designers --, and it has caused all sorts of confusion,
>especially among people who assume that the OT 'language system' tags must
have
>some relationship to things like NLS tags. There is no necessary
relationship
>and, indeed, it is possible to conceive of a user wanting to apply, for
>instance, the typographic conventions of German to a language other than
German.
But should there not be some (possibly user-overridable) relationship
between an NLS or similar tag (e.g. "lang" in HTML or xml:lang) and one of
these so that a browser or word-processing app that knows what "language"
(e.g. what RFC 3066 tag) is applied to the data can tell the
layout/rendering sub-system what OT "language-system" tags to apply
(assuming some API exists to do so)? Surely that is where we want to move
toward.
- Peter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Constable
Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485
E-mail: <peter_constable@sil.org>
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