Language Codes (was Re: [xliff-tools] PO Representation Guide: The PO Header)

[Asgeir Frimannsson]

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 07:19, Rodolfo M. Raya wrote:
> Here are a few comments about the PO Representation Guide:
>
> References
>

...

>
>         Definitions of the standards used in language related attributes
>         are essential. XLIFF specs says that language codes are not case
>         sensitive and also recommends following RFC3066; this RFC
>         recommends the ISO 639 codes, which are case sensitive (lower
>         case). Right now almost all Open Source projects working with PO
>         files use ISO 639-1 codes. The adopted language standard must be
>         clearly stated, to avoid potential conflicts with  tools that
>         use custom codes.
>

The XLIFF 1.1 specs does not only recommend RFC3066, but specifies it. But as 
you say, we should clearly state this in the guide.

How do we deal with language-codes in the filters? When converting a 
translated PO file to XLIFF, there is no way of knowing which target-language 
is used in the PO file. The XLIFF spec doesn't explicitly state that a 
target-language must be present when <target> elements exists, but it would 
make sense to always have this attribute when there exists <target> elements.

I would suggest adding to the guide a section describing different options for 
specifying target-language (e.g. by adding a 'target-lang' attribute to the 
filter)

cheers,
asgeir