Re: Web documentation automatic language

[David Fedoruk]

Hello:

For the web to work correctly, it needs a dialogue between the browser
and the server. Obviously this is true for the first request. What you
don't see is what is going on behind the scenes, http headers is an
example.

Each web browser sends enough information to the server so that the
server can send a page configured so that browser can display it
correctly.  A different page is sent if you are requesting the page
from a small  screen telephone for instance, and a different one for a
24 inch wide screen monitor.

Language preferences are among those the server needs to process a
page. Something as sophisticated as automatic language processing
requires more accurate information from the browser.

You can see what your browser is sending to the server by visiting this page:

http://gemal.dk/browserspy/accept.php

What you configure in your preferenes directly affects what the server
will send as well as what your browser will accept.

> >> Setting the "Prefered language" to include English solves the problem, but
> >> it's definitely a bug that the French version is the default if you haven't
> >> configured your browser.
> >
> > Why would it not be a browser bug?
>
> because language negotion happens server-side?

It happens from both sides.. as I pointed out above, this is a
dialogue between browser and server (client and server) just the way
your computer negotiates an IP address from your ISP.
> isn't there a way to configure apache that .en is the default?

Yes, but that defeats the who concept of automatic language configuration.


Cheers,
David


--
David Fedoruk
B.Mus. UBC,1986
Certificate in Internet Systems Administration, UBC, 2003


http://recordjackethistorian.wordpress.com
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