Re: [Docutils-users] Is rst2odt -l cs supposed to work?

[Guenter M. <mi...@us...>]

On 2017-05-11, Matěj Cepl wrote:
> On 2017-05-11, 12:40 GMT, Guenter Milde wrote:
>>   .../docutils/languages/cs.py
>>   .../docutils/parsers/rst/languages/cs.py

> Especially the second file looks quite hopelessly :(

>>> You can try "-l cs", but you end up with the language 
>>> "cs-US", which
>>> I'm guessing you do not want.

>> This seems wrong in any case. It should stay "cs" without the optional
>> region subtag.

> I would think the default to be cs_CS (as in de_DE, fr_FR, 
> es_ES, it_IT etc., which are all “safe, default” dialects of the 
> main language)

I agree, that the "main country" is a reasonable default for cases where some
back-end application *requires* a region subtag.¹


> which is wrong however, because CS was the 
> abbreviation for Czechoslovakia and it does not exist anymore.

Note the difference: "cs" is the tag for the Czech language while the
region tag (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code) for the Czech Republic is "CZ". 
If a region subtag is required, "cs-CZ" should be used for the Czech
language.


Docutils should accept and work with the generic tag "cs" and expand it
to "cs-CZ" in cases where it would be misinterpreted as "cs-US" by some
dumb back-end.


Günter


¹ However, it is not "safe", as *any* region subtag narrows the specification:

   2.1.  Syntax

   A language tag is composed from a sequence of one or more "subtags",
   each of which refines or narrows the range of language identified by
   the overall tag. 
   
   -- BCP 47

    2.2.4.  Region Subtag
    
    Region subtags are used to indicate linguistic variations associated
    with or appropriate to a specific country, territory, or region.
    Typically, a region subtag is used to indicate variations such as
    regional dialects or usage, or region-specific spelling conventions.
    
    
    ... the region subtag MAY be omitted, as when it adds no
    distinguishing value to the tag.

    -- BCP 47