[whatwg] internationalization/localization

[Ian Hickson]

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Martin Kutschker wrote:
>>
>> As for the date the user inputs, the UA should use the user's locale
>> to determine the timezone.
>
> What's the users locale? OS/UI settings? Browser settings?

Yes. (Either. Depends on the browser and platform.)


>> Theoretically, a webmaster might want to control how dates or time are
>> entered. However, they can do this using a series of patterned text
>> boxes or <select> elements.
>
> That's what they currently do. Wasn't the idea to improve this?

_If_ the Web author wants precise control, he can do it as described
above. But if he just wants to rely on the UA, then he can use the built
in date controls.


>> Webmasters will adjust and eventually learn to appreciate the uniform
>> handling of dates and times.
>
> Sending dates yes, displaying ... don't know. If the spec doesn't
> specify how it looks like it's IMHO unusable. As a web designer you just
> want to know how large the input field will be (eg "06-30-2004" vs
> "Wednesday, 30 June 2004"). So a date pattern used for input and output
> makes sense. Or the spec defines that a date should be displayed in the
> shortest possible way (no names of weekdays and months).

The spec, or another spec to go with it, will eventually give guidelines
for what the UI should be like. But we're going to need lots of
implementation feedback on that first.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'