How to use xml:lang? (was: DDML Documentation Capabilities)

[Jarle Stabell]

David Megginson wrote:
> You might even want to get fancy and allow <Title>, <Desc>, and
> <DDML:Doc> to be repeated with different values for xml:lang.
> Obviously, the information for (2) and (3) can be included in
> <DDML:Doc>, but since it has no standard structure, it is difficult to
> automatically generate menus, help-files, etc. for DTDs from a DDML
> description.

I agree that this information would be great for tools to have available.


One question (not about DDML in particular) regarding how to best use 
xml:lang:

Should the DDML look something like:

<Title xml:lang="de">
Title in german
</Title>
<Desc xml:lang="de">
Description in german
</Desc>
<Title xml:lang="en">
Title in english
</Title>
<Desc xml:lang="en">
Description in english
</Desc>

etc...


or should one use something similar to:

<Title>
<if xml:lang="de">Title in german</if><if xml:lang="en">Title in 
english</if>....
</Title>
<Desc>
<if xml:lang="de">Description in german</if><if xml:lang="en">Description 
in english</if>
</Desc>


The latter seems in a sense "cleaner" to me, as the first one seems to have 
a somewhat "bad influence" upon the DTD (enabling multiple Title elements 
etc when it "logically" only should contain a single one, or does what 
seems the most "logical" depend upon the perspective/application?)


Are there any consensus as to how to best handle this situation?


Cheers,

Jarle Stabell
Digital Logikk AS


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