[whatwg] internationalization/localization

[Ian Hickson]

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Jim Ley wrote:
>
> This requirement [that the UA have a correctly configured clock] simply
> isn't workable on the web.

I'm still not convinced (especially in light of the post recently pointing
out that you could check that the time was correctly said, and warn the
user if not). But unless new evidence comes to light it appears neither of
us is being convinced by the other's argument.

Anyway, both models are supported in the spec now, so we'll see what the
market decides.


>>> Sure. Anyway web/gtraphics designers loath everything they cannot
>>> control. If it cannot be controlled at least to some degree it simply
>>> won't be used.
>>
>> Eventually XBL will be able to fully control this stuff.
>
> Right, what rendering language does this XBL have that gives us this
> complete control over how things look?

CSS is quite capable of doing most widget looks (for example the widgets
in Mozilla skins are all done with XBL and CSS). On the long run SVG might
even be usable here.


> Why would we use the rather hobbled to be backwards compatible WF2
> proposals in an XBL environment?

"XBL environment"? XBL, like CSS, is just part of the presentation layer
on top of HTML, WF2, etc.

So that's like asking "why would I use HTML in a CSS environment". The
answer is "because the HTML provides the semantics", which you need for
accessibility and indexing, for instance.


>> I'm not convinced that we need this on the date controls themsevles.
>> Those should automatically adapt to the user's locale, why would the
>> author want to control that further at the format level?
>
> Because designers feel the need to place some control on what the user
> sees, they like to be able to say "20em" for the width of an input
> control, once the rendering is no longer in their hands, they no longer
> know if 20em is appropriate to show the entire date in a particular
> format.

Yeah, that level of detail is the domain of the Web Controls 1.0 spec.

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