[whatwg] Allowed characters in attribute names (was: Re: Stepsfor finding one or two numbers in a string)

[Charles McCathieNevile]

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:51:46 +0200, Křištof Želechovski  
<giecrilj at stegny.2a.pl> wrote:

> Your hypothetical author is unable to insert an embed element because  
> embed is all English to him.  Being able to use a Mandarin attribute
> name will not help him much because he cannot produce the element to
> use it with.

In my example I had the author using an IDE that is localised already for  
known elements. People really do this. The ones I am aware of actually use  
japanese or arabic, and do it for convenience - although in principle they  
can normally work with some kind of latin script, they are not very  
familiar with english, and would be as happy to use "inbed" as "embed",  
and happier with something that they recognise more instinctively. China,  
in particular, is quite keen on localising everything. India seems more  
inclined to do so, as well, as time goes on and they become a more  
important player in technology.

The scenario does require that the language is extensible - this can be  
done with XML, presumably including the XML version HTML 5, but not HTML 5  
as currently proposed.

> Considering Arabic script and the like, the time is probably near when we
> will have to learn it anyway.  But we still have some time left, so let's
> just use the opportunities.  The day is full of troubles even without  
> your fantasizing.

Thanks for your polite and constructive reply.

> Cheers,
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charles McCathieNevile [mailto:chaals at opera.com]
> Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 4:40 AM
> To: Kristof Zelechovski; 'Simon Pieters'; 'Thomas Broyer';  
> whatwg at whatwg.org
> Subject: Re: [whatwg] Allowed characters in attribute names (was: Re:
> Stepsfor finding one or two numbers in a string)
>
> On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:18:28 +0200, Kristof Zelechovski
> <giecrilj at stegny.2a.pl> wrote:
>
>> Why should I want to use a localized attribute name for the embed
>> element?
>
> Because the only languages you speak are mandarin, cantonese and han, and
> you are using an IDE to develop your system that only requires you to  
> deal
> with localised stuff for the rest of it.
>
> Actually, that isn't using a localised attribute name, just one that
> actually has a little bit of obvious semantics. Would it make sense to
> require english speakers to use arabic characters?
>
> While english is a very widely spoken language, most people still don't
> speak a latin language.
>
> cheers
>
> Chaals
>



-- 
   Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software: Standards Group
   hablo español  -  je parle français  -  jeg lærer norsk
chaals at opera.com    Catch up: Speed Dial   http://opera.com