Re: i18n

Alex Russell <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.windows.devel.netwindows
Organization netWindows.org
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Friday 05 September 2003 01:31, Mark Anderson wrote:
> i guess what i'm missing is why a client-side solution is preferable
> or otherwise attractive.
>
> server-side templating solutions generally support (or at least have
> to confront) dynamic content based on user preferences, client device,
> site customization, and a variety of other dimensions.
> language is just one such customization.
>
> what would be next? javascript-based switching of currency and temperature
> units?

Next up, netWindows Client Pages (nWCP). I'll be kinda like PHP or ASP only 
slower and with a buggier runtime environment ;)

OTOH, I can see this being useful for little things, or perhaps even full 
pages in some situations.

> furthermore, http itself supplies a preference for language in the
> standard.

I think this might actually be the biggest nail in the coffin of any 
client-side internationalization effort. If the declared encoding doesn't 
support the returned language type or encoding, you're hosed. I think that's 
going to be a real problem here, and one I'm not interested in solving.

Franly, I'd never do it client-side on any app I develop, as it'll be too 
slow, create too much interface dissruption (which is something NW is 
designed to reduce!), and won't work as well for my uses from a performance 
standpoint.

> i feel the same about pure client-side lang switching as i
> do about pure client-side css switching -- a cool hack
> perhaps, but not particularly necessary AFAIK.

I actually find the CSS switching stuff to be a cool hack that would be really 
frigging useful if the browser manufacturers could get their collective acts 
togeather. Kinda like overflow: auto;.

> in any event, one approach would be to use the standard xml:lang attribute,
> and on the client exclude any elements (and their children) which possess
> an xml:lang attribute and its value differs from the desired one.

Hadn't thought of that. It's a nice way of solving the tagging problem.

-- 
Alex Russell
[email protected]    BD10 7AFC 87F6 63F9 1691 83FA 9884 3A15 AFC9 61B7
[email protected]  F687 1964 1EF6 453E 9BD0 5148 A15D 1D43 AB92 9A46

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