[vicsireland] Re: Language recognition on websites - follow up question
- From: Tony.G.Murray@xxxxxx
- To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:22:08 +0100
Hi Robbie,
It could do.
TBH, I'm a little rusty on this stuff, but here is a possible theory.
Perhaps we're dealing with a combination of versioning and malformed page
issues here.
As you probably know, the way of specifying the language on a page is
slightly different... depending on whether you are using HTML 4.x or
XHTML. Assuming that this is all fine.. and your different types of pages
have the correct kinds of lang definitions...
I understand that the lang attribute was adopted in HTML 4.x. Now, the
problem is, it is very easy to break an HTML 4.x page (especially HTML 4.x
Strict). Could it be, that a module defined as an HTML 4.x (transitional
or strict) has it's lang attribute correctly specified... but somewhere
down the page, there is markup present (or not present) which breaks the
version's guidelines... Thus producing a malformed HTML 4.x document? Shot
in the dark, that one!
It is understandable that the XHTML pages you are viewing work each time
with the correct lang specifications, as by it's nature... XHTML either
works or it doesn't. Any error in an XML module renders the document
'malformed' (or broken), and given that XHTML is XML that browsers can
interpret, well, the same rules apply.
HTML 4.x transitional and then strict attempted to standardise HTML, as it
completely spun out of control soon after it was born. New elements were
introduced on the fly, some browsers became incompatible with the newer
inventions... Versions of different browsers interpreted and rendered
content in different wild and wonderful ways... It was a mess. The next
step on the road to standardisation was XHTML, which brings the whole ball
game back in line with what HTML started out as... that is, SGML.
So, as a developer of the stuff, I'd recommend you use XHTML, it will be
best for you and for your users. Using XHTML will not require you to
learn a new fancy language... once you know one markup language, the rest
of them look familiar... You just have to be more careful developing with
XHTML.
Best wishes,
Tony
"Sandberg, Robert" <robert.sandberg@xxxxxxx>
Sent by: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
26/06/2008 13:59
Please respond to vicsireland
To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
cc:
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Language recognition on websites
- follow up question
Hi Tony!
Few! I now know that the language of a web page can be declared using
either the meta tag, of which there are 2 variations, or using the http
header function, or using the lang tag.
Unfortunately none of these work for me. I have compared the code of a
couple of websites where the language declaration does not work, with
ones where it does work, and I can't find anything that would explain
the different behaviour. Except that the sites where it did work were
all xml, whereas the ones where it didn't work were pure html. Does that
have any baring on the matter? Or does something else need configuring
for the language declaration to work?
Cheers, Robbie
-----Original Message-----
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Tony.G.Murray@xxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 11:42 AM
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Language recognition on websites
Hi Robbie,
See section 4 on the following page:
http://www.w3.org/TR/i18n-html-tech-lang/
Cheers,
Tony
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