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From: harald.alvestrand@elab-runit.sintef.no
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: New USENET header: Language
Keywords: OSI
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.082150.5895@ugle.unit.no>
Date: 4 Jan 91 08:21:50 GMT
References: <R9A+N_=@b-tech.uucp> <1990Dec29.093002.10739@lth.se> <91B+H%A@b-tech.uucp> <1990Dec30.095938.23011@lth.se> <4ef9aa39.1bc5b@pisa.ifs.umich.edu> <1991Jan03.061359.8706@looking.on.ca>
Sender: news@ugle.unit.no
Reply-To: harald.alvestrand@elab-runit.sintef.no
Organization: ELAB-RUNIT, SINTEF, Norway
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Just to get everybody stirred up:
It might be a good idea to look at what other people are doing.

The X.400(88) standards specify a header-extension (header to all you folks)
that is a set of languages, each identified by its ISO 639.2 two-letter code,
that "identifies the languages used in the composition of the message's subject
field and body". "If the extension is absent, the languages shall be considered
unspecified", to quote the legalese.

They also specify that the body of the message contains a sequence of
body parts,
each of which may have a different encoding. Definition of body parts is a
"free-for-all", with IA5 text (ASCII) being far and away the most common.
(Anybody can now allocate an identifier for a body part)
My personal guess for the winner in the "rich text" sweepstakes is ODA, also
an ISO standard.

If we want to crash all our newsreaders, we might as well aim at something
that *at least* covers this functionality :-)

(I did NOT put a followup-to: to comp.protocols.iso.x400 - but further
discussion of the X.400(88) standard may belong there. Impact on News belongs
here, I think...)


                   Harald Tveit Alvestrand
Harald.Alvestrand@elab-runit.sintef.no
C=no;PRMD=uninett;O=sintef;OU=elab-runit;S=alvestrand;G=harald
+47 7 59 70 94