[Foundation-l] foundation-l Digest, Vol 55, Issue 48

[Michael Everson]

On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 1:39 AM, Gerard Meijssen wrote:

>> This code is according to the standard to be used by Tosk Albanian  
>> while we use it for "Alsatian". This is not acceptable for what we  
>> currently do, making it compulsory for future new projects is not  
>> acceptable either. Projects like these should be renamed as they  
>> are squatting ligitimate codes for ligitimate languages.

Chad answered:

> Asking people to change their URLs is not a good idea. Let's say the  
> standards changed and EN was no longer English. Do you honestly  
> think we'd move en.wiki just because some standards body says we're  
> using the wrong code?
>
> While I agree that it's best practice to follow the standard,  
> forcing a subdomain change on a project simply to follow a standard  
> is absurd.

I cannot agree. We have standards to make the world a better place. In  
ISO 639 and RFC 4646 we have worked hard to give the right support to  
everybody. If Alsatian and Tosk are in conflict, that's got to be  
taken seriously.

From: "Gerard Meijssen" <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>

> The standards did not change. The standard that gave the English  
> language the code en has been around since 2002. People chose to  
> ignore the standard and abused codes like als in stead of gsw, they  
> ignored the fact that the best common practice states that you  
> should not mix the codes with invented codes. Using codes that are  
> absolutely wrong  should not be used for any new projects. These  
> projects should be renamed.

I'll agree.

> Renaming and leaving a redirect in place is indeed a great way to  
> move forward.

And if you're Tosk?

M