RFC 2070 (rfc2070) - Page 1 of 43
Internationalization of the Hypertext Markup Language
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group F. Yergeau
Request for Comments: 2070 Alis Technologies
Category: Standards Track G. Nicol
Electronic Book Technologies
G. Adams
Spyglass
M. Duerst
University of Zurich
January 1997
Internationalization of the Hypertext Markup Language
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language used to
create hypertext documents that are platform independent. Initially,
the application of HTML on the World Wide Web was seriously
restricted by its reliance on the ISO-8859-1 coded character set,
which is appropriate only for Western European languages. Despite
this restriction, HTML has been widely used with other languages,
using other coded character sets or character encodings, at the
expense of interoperability.
This document is meant to address the issue of the
internationalization (i18n, i followed by 18 letters followed by n)
of HTML by extending the specification of HTML and giving additional
recommendations for proper internationalization support. A foremost
consideration is to make sure that HTML remains a valid application
of SGML, while enabling its use with all languages of the world.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .................................................. 2
1.1. Scope ...................................................... 2
1.2. Conformance ................................................ 3
2. The document character set ..................................... 4
2.1. Reference processing model ................................. 4
2.2. The document character set ................................. 6
2.3. Undisplayable characters ................................... 8
Yergeau, et. al. Standards Track