[Taxacom] Language tags for scientific names

[Andy Mabbett]

In message <4866ABB6.7030105 at earthlink.net>, Curtis Clark
<jcclark-lists at earthlink.net> writes

>please explain what you 

>find so objectionable about the proposal to subdivide a scientific-name 

>language tag?


Though I've already done so:

 In message <uSie5y$qpMZIFw3g at pigsonthewing.org.uk>, Andy Mabbett
 <andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk> writes

 >It's not the job of language markup to resolve such ambiguities
 >(though the species microformat does).
 >
 >Does <span lang="en">feet</span> refer to measurement or the things at
 >the end of legs? We don't use en-measurement and en-anatomy.

this conversation didn't stem from my objection, but from my opinion
that such a move will be unlikely to succeed:

 In message <aUvzoNNfyWZIFwx+ at pigsonthewing.org.uk>, Andy Mabbett
 <andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk> writes

 >As we have already seen, persuading the IETF-languages folk that
 >taxonomic names should be treated /like/ a language is not going to be
 >easy; I think it reasonable to assume that persuading them that four
 >or five such languages exist will be nigh on impossible.

and the fact that, for some solutions, it would restrict the possibility
of having parent "taxonomy" tag:

 In message <7F0rc$OyvXZIFwET at pigsonthewing.org.uk>, Andy Mabbett
 <andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk> writes

 >The difference between those two language tags and recent proposals
 >for including ICBN and the like, is that they "degrade gracefully",
 >though a hierarchy. For instance, if a parser does not understand
 >"de-CH-1901", it will fall back to using "de-CH", and it if doesn't
 >understand that, to "de".
 >
 >This will work for, say, tx-QQ-ICBN ("tx" instead of "tax"; whatever
 >"QQ" might be), and for zxx-TX-ICBN, but only to a very limited degree
 >for zxx-x-ICBN/ zxx-x-TAX or zxx-ICBN/ zxx-TAX.

-- 
Andy Mabbett
            Says  "NO! to compulsory UK ID Cards":  <http://www.no2id.net/>
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