[tei-council] Values of @xml:lang on <exemplum>

[Gabriel Bodard]

Do we really want a significant semantic distinction to rely on the 
difference between an empty attribute and the lack of an attribute? That 
feels fragile to me (but maybe I'm just living in DTD-land too long...)

G

David Sewell a écrit :
> No, there's not a flaw in the xsd:language data type; it is defined as
> "the set of all strings that are valid language identifiers as defined
> [RFC 3066]". Empty string is therefore not allowed. Instead we need to
> change the definition of @xml:lang to allow a choice between empty and
> xsd:language, probably:
> 
>               <choice>
>                 <empty/>
>                 <data type="language"/>
>               </choice>
> 
> If we make this change, we will need to update the Guidelines language.
> 
> David
> 
> On Thu, 30 Apr 2009, James Cummings wrote:
> 
>> James Cummings wrote:
>>> David Sewell wrote:
>>>> Cases #1 and #3 seem clear-cut. The former takes @xml:lang="en", the
>>>> latter takes @xml:lang="" (the latter is the explicitly recommended
>>>> XML practice for tagging an element where you want to suppress language
>>>> information, see http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-lang-tag).
>>> Currently the TEI Schemas don't allow us to have xml:lang="" (or at least in
>>> my quick test in oXygen).  This is, I'd argue an oversight since you suggest
>>> the spec allows it.
>>>
>>> We define it as data.language == xsd:language.  So there must be a flaw in
>>> xsd:language that doesn't allow empty values.
>> And furthermore we say on the attribute reference page:
>>
>> "Note: If no value is specified for xml:lang, the xml:lang value for the
>> immediately enclosing element is inherited; for this reason, a value should
>> always be specified on the outermost element (TEI)."
>>
>> We should perhaps update this to distinguish between the attribute not being
>> present, which is what refers to by 'no value specified' and the attribute
>> being present but erm, no actual value specified.
>>
>> -James
>>
>>
> 

-- 
Dr Gabriel BODARD
(Epigrapher & Digital Classicist)

Centre for Computing in the Humanities
King's College London
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London WC2B 5RL
Email: gabriel.bodard at kcl.ac.uk
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