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RE: Two different sets of experiences about non-English identifiers

• From: Don Park <donpark@d...>
• To: xml-dev@l...
• Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 14:09:21 -0700

HUMAN FACTOR:

We engineers often forget that, while technical aspect of translating native
tag names to another language might be trivial, human factors are not.  For
example, people using the target tag names will not be able to communicate
well with the original group nor groups using different target tag names.
This problem can be minimized by using phonetic translation (i.e. Gaijin),
but the problem does not go away.

CODE FACTOR:

XML applications recognize tags by tag names.  Unless XML applications are
designed to support multiple native tag names, code must be modified for
each target language and repeat for each update.  Translating code is harder
than translating data.

BUSINESS FACTOR:

Today's globalization trend makes it less likely for a business to stay
within its national border during its lifetime.  Unless native tag names is
being used as a form of anti-takeover mechanism, I donot see a compelling
and tangeble reasons not to prepare for likely future.

There are probably other factors involved, but these are some I can think of
at this time.  Comments?

Best,

Don Park

• References:
  • Re: Two different sets of experiences about non-English identifie rs
    • From: Colin Muller <colin@d...>

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