Subject: [Ltru] Eliminating "content" considered harmful

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 18:54:18 -0400

It's fairly easy to cast both filtering algorithms in terms of just working
through a list of ranges and a list of language tags, and Addison has
heroically done so.

The whole point of the lookup algorithm, though, is to find the best piece
of content given a list of ranges and a set of information items with or
without tags.  Saying that lookup is supposed to return just one information
item is correct; saying that it is supposed to return just one language
tag is *not*.  The present state of 12a is inconsistent between the
view "return one tag" and "return one tag if you can".

Cleaning up by making it "return one or zero tags" eliminates the whole
purpose of the lookup algorithm, and requires an entirely new machinery
of justification.

(Having a matching draft in the first place was stupid; matching should have
been left out, since everything in 3066 on the subject is just a restatement
of 2616, which should have been left in charge.  Too late now, I know.)

-- 
"But I am the real Strider, fortunately,"       John Cowan
he said, looking down at them with his face     [email-masked]
softened by a sudden smile.  "I am Aragorn son  http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
of Arathorn, and if by life or death I can
save you, I will."  --LotR Book I Chapter 10

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From: "Randy Presuhn" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 16:07:11 -0700

Hi -

As a technical contributor...

> From: "John Cowan" <[email-masked]>
> To: <[email-masked]>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 3:54 PM
> Subject: [Ltru] Eliminating "content" considered harmful
...
> tag is *not*.

Returning content is *not* the sole possible use of language tag matching
or lookup.  Consider, for example, a multi-party negotiation in protocol to
decide what language to use for a meeting, conference, or multicast session.

> The present state of 12a is inconsistent between the

This sounds like a problem of unclarity with respect to "default".

> purpose of the lookup algorithm, and requires an entirely new machinery
...

Returning content is an application of the technology, an appropriate
example of its use.  Having given the example, however, we should
then focus on what we are supposed to deliver, rather than the example.

Randy

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From: Mark Davis <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 16:48:08 -0700

I disagree. It is perfectly reasonable for us to specify that the result 
must a language tag. (worst case, it could return "und"). While the 
point may be to return content, that is, as I've said, a logically 
separable feature -- no need for us to gum up the description.

[The point of the bidi algorithm is to produce Arabic or Hebrew that is 
ordered corre ctly for the screen, but it is perfectly acceptable for a 
conformant process to simply produce the reordered text, and leave it to 
some other process to actually do the rendering on that basis.]

Mark