> -----Original Message-----
> From: devl-bounces at freenetproject.org 
> [mailto:devl-bounces at freenetproject.org] On Behalf Of Daniel Cheng
> Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 1:57 AM
> To: Discussion of development issues
> Subject: Re: [freenet-dev] [freenet-cvs] r23489 - 
> trunk/plugins/Freetalk
> 
> On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 2:39 AM, Matthew Toseland 
> <toad at amphibian.dyndns.org> wrote:
> > On Tuesday 11 November 2008 19:19, xor at freenetproject.org wrote:
> >> Author: xor
> >> Date: 2008-11-11 19:19:37 +0000 (Tue, 11 Nov 2008) New Revision: 
> >> 23489
> >>
> >> Modified:
> >>    trunk/plugins/Freetalk/FTBoard.java
> >> Log:
> >> Implement the following restriction on board names:
> >> If the name contains any letters different than A to Z and 
> '.' then 
> >> the part
> > of the name before the first dot has to be only letters of A to Z 
> > specifying an ISO language code. This allows users which 
> cannot type 
> > the letters of that language to filter based on the first 
> part because 
> > they then can type its name. Further, it is polite to specify what 
> > language a board is in if it is not English, therefore 
> require the ISO code.
> 
> Good luck with iso langauage code.
> 
> We have lots of iso codes ISO 639-2, ISO 639-3, ISO 639-5, etc.
> 
> To make things more messy -- some of them define *spoken* 
> language, while the others define a *written* language.
> 
> You are using ISO639-2 code here.
> Some incompatible languages under the same 639-2 code and 
> lots of language don't even have a iso639-2.
> 

There are two major facts that enforce us to require a language code
in the board name IMHO:

1. We CANNOT limit board names to latin alphabet even though NNTP does
that. Freenet should be easy to use for ANYONE, and nobody would want
to force chinese people to use our alphabet.

2. If we allow "weird" alphabets, we should allow people to filter
boards out of their board list which use an alphabet which they do 
not understand. The most easy way would be to inlcude something before
the first dot in the board name so people can filter "prefix.*".
And the best prefix of course would be a language code.

Even if we cannot find a perfect ISO code its still sufficient, the
chance of internet being available in a country which does not even
have an ISO code for their language is very little I guess :)

But feel free to find a better ISO-code-list than the default java
one.

I do doubt that there will be users who cannot find their language in
the ISO list AND cannot find a code which is at least close to the right
one.



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