Re: lang() function and ISO 639

Subject: Re: lang() function and ISO 639
From: Mike Brown <mike@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 17:33:23 -0600 (MDT)
> I was looking over the lang() function in XPath under the boolean core
> function group (spec. 4.3) and wondered if there was a problem between the
> 2-letter ISO 639 spec, and the  ISO 639-2:1998 which sets three-letter
> codes 

XML 1.0 only allows xml:lang attributes to use 2-letter codes from ISO
639 or certain codes beginning with "i" or "x", due to the normative
reference to RFC 1766, which imposes those restrictions. ISO 639 is now
639-1 and 639-2, but these developments were not anticipated when the RFC
and the XML spec were written. The reference to ISO 639 in RFC 1766 is to
ISO 639:1988, first edition, which doesn't have the 3-letter codes
defined in 639-2. It's also missing a number of 2-letter codes that have
been added to 639-1.

> The QName does not need a separarte namespace declaration b/c xml: is
> a default namespace for xml instances, right?  I'd only need to add
> that attribute, by my understanding, yes?

Yes. From http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/

"The namespace prefix, unless it is xml or xmlns, must have been
declared ... The prefix xml is by definition bound to the namespace name
http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace.";

   - Mike
____________________________________________________________________
Mike J. Brown, software engineer at         My XML/XSL resources:
webb.net in Denver, Colorado, USA           http://www.skew.org/xml/


 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list


Current Thread