Date:         Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:02:01 -0500
Reply-To:     Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
From:         Ray Denenberg <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Library Of Congress
Subject:      Re: language: comments please
Comments: To: Metadata Object Description Schema List <[log in to unmask]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Rick Beaubien wrote:

> Given that the MODS language element supports both ISO 639-2 and RFC3066, I
> feel that any provision for language attributes should as well, just for
> the sake of consistency.  However, to make the authority explicit and to
> avoid having two parallel language attributes to contain the language
> value, you might want to consider defining a language attribute group that
> included both a LANG and LANGTYPE attributes along the lines of the
> following:
>
> <xsd:attributeGroup name="LANGUAGE">
>                  <xsd:attribute name="LANG" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
>                  <xsd:attribute name="LANGTYPE" use="optional">
>                          <xsd:simpleType>
>                                  <xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
>                                          <xsd:enumeration value="RFC3066"/>
>                                          <xsd:enumeration value="ISO639-2b"/>
>                                  </xsd:restriction>
>                          </xsd:simpleType>
>                  </xsd:attribute>
>          </xsd:attributeGroup>
>
> Such handling would, I think, be most consistent with the current language
> element.

Rick -- Thanks for the suggestion.  We've had quite a bit of discussion here and
we agree with this approach.  But we have a couple concerns (and would like to
know if other people see these as problems).

First, to really be consistent we would need to represent language consistently as
an attribute as opposed to an element (in fact we'd have to do that to use the
above approach).  An attribute on an element is the appropriate way to represent
the language of the element. However, language is itself currently an element (not
an attribute), as it represents the language of the item. So we propose to
represent the language element as an element where the element content is not
signficant (may be empty), where language and language type are both represented
as attributes.  That way it can use the attribute group as suggested.  This may
seem a bit of a cludge but I think the benefits of this approach (the consistency
that's gained) outweigh the slight clumsiness.

Secondly, this approach represents language type as an attribute qualifying
language, itself an attribute. (It seems like a cludge to allow an attribute on an
attribute.) If  nobody else is bothered by this then I suppose we aren't.

--Ray