RFC 6082

Deprecating Unicode Language Tag Characters: RFC 2482 is Historic 💖

okay bestie, this is RFC 6082 🎀 It's an IETF document (Internet Engineering Task Force), which is basically the Internet's protocol rulebook. It's a Request for Comments, published in November 2010 🍓 and filed under ISSN 2070-1721 ✨

It's written by a whole squad: Kenneth Whistler of Sybase, Inc., Glenn Adams of Skynav (Phil), Inc., Martin Duerst of Aoyama Gakuin University, and Randy Presuhn (the editor) and John Klensin 🫶 Its category is Informational 🔥, so it's published for information and isn't a Standards Track spec. It obsoletes RFC 2482, and it doesn't list anything it updates. Full cast, full details, all in the document below 💅

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Abstract ✨

okay so RFC 2482, "Language Tagging in Unicode Plain Text", describes a way to use special Unicode language tag characters to label languages when you need it, without bringing in heavier markup like XML 🌸 The Unicode Consortium has deprecated that whole facility and strongly recommends against using it 💀 So RFC 2482 has been moved to Historic status 🦋 The goal is to make sure Internet implementers don't think of that system as a good way to identify languages.

Status of This Memo 🌈

This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification. It's published for informational purposes 💜

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community, got public review, and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) ✨ Not everything the IESG approves is a candidate for any level of Internet Standard, so check Section 2 of RFC 5741 if you're curious about that 🙈

Info about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to give feedback lives at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6082 🔗

Copyright Notice 🌸

Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. 💅

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) as they stand on the publication date. Read these carefully, bestie, because they explain your rights and restrictions for this document 🫶 Code Components pulled out of this document must include Simplified BSD License text, as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they come with no warranty, as described in the Simplified BSD License ⭐

Table of Contents 🧚

1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Action ..........................................................2
3. Security Considerations .........................................3
4. Acknowledgments .................................................3
5. References ......................................................3
   5.1. Normative References .......................................3
   5.2. Informative References .....................................3

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1. Introduction ✨

okay so RFC 2482, "Language Tagging in Unicode Plain Text" [RFC2482], describes a way to use special Unicode language tag characters to identify languages when needed. It was an idea whose time never quite came 😭 It got replaced by whole-transaction language identification like the MIME Content-language header [RFC3282], plus broader markup like XML. The Unicode Consortium deprecated the language tag character facility and strongly recommends against using it. So RFC 2482 has been moved to Historic status, to reduce the chance that Internet implementers think that tagging system is an appropriate way to identify languages 🦋

If you want the full tea on the status of the language tag characters and where they apply, check Section 16.9 of The Unicode Standard [Unicode52] 🌈

2. Action 💅

RFC 2482 has been deprecated and reclassified as Historic. Internet protocols and Standards-Track documents should not use the facilities described in that document 🙈

3. Security Considerations 🔥

Deprecating RFC 2482 gets rid of a facility the Unicode Consortium no longer encourages or supports 💀 It could also have been a little risky to use if it got misread, or if the expectation of support wasn't met. So if this action has any effect on Internet security at all, it should be positive ✨

4. Acknowledgments 🫶

Helpful comments came in from Peter Koch and S. Moonesamy 💖

5. References 🎀

5.1. Normative References 🌸

Here are the normative references, in full:

[RFC2482]    Whistler, K. and G. Adams, "Language Tagging in Unicode
             Plain Text", RFC 2482, January 1999.

[Unicode52]  The Unicode Consortium.  The Unicode Standard, Version
             5.2.0, defined by: "The Unicode Standard, Version
             5.2.0", (Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium,
             2009. ISBN 978-1-936213-00-9).
             <http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.2.0/>.

5.2. Informative References 🧚

And the informative one:

[RFC3282]    Alvestrand, H., "Content Language Headers", RFC 3282,
             May 2002.

Authors' Addresses 🦋

Here are the squad's contact details, bestie 💜

Kenneth Whistler
Sybase, Inc.
One Sybase Dr.
Dublin, CA  94568
USA

Phone: +1 925 236 7429
EMail: kenw@sybase.com


Glenn Adams
Skynav (Phil), Inc.
Lot 14 Boton Area
Subic Bay Freeport Zone  2222
Philippines

Phone:
EMail: glenn@skynav.com


Martin Duerst
Aoyama Gakuin University
5-10-1 Fuchinobe
Sagamihara, Kanagawa  229-8558
Japan

Phone: +81 42 759 6329
Fax:   +81 42 759 6495
EMail: duerst@it.aoyama.ac.jp


Randy Presuhn (editor)
San Jose, CA  95120
USA

Phone:
EMail: randy_presuhn@mindspring.com


John C Klensin
1770 Massachusetts Ave, Ste 322
Cambridge, MA  02140
USA

Phone: +1 617 245 1457
EMail: john+ietf@jck.com

That's the whole RFC, bestie! 🌈✨👑