Translating lists in AppStream descriptions about flathub

[razzeee]

It's not the website, it's a libappstream bug I guess. The description in http://hub.flathub.org/repo/appstream/x86_64/appstream.xml.gz has no language tags anymore on the ul.

Can you raise an issue over at https://github.com/ximion/appstream/issues ?

[bbhtt]

The xml:lang is supppsed to be inside li not ul, probably that's the reason See https://docs.flathub.org/docs/for-app-authors/metainfo-guidelines/#metainfo-translations

[razzeee]

flathub-infra/website#2647 should take care of that

Edit: nevermind, that's not working correctly

[JakeSmarter]

Indeed, this is not a Flathub issue but an AppStream spec issue.

The core issue here is that the AppStream spec on this matter is incomplete or inconclusive at best, and breaking the XML spec at worst. Imho the latter is the case here because the XML spec says:

A special attribute named xml:lang may be inserted in documents to specify the language used in the contents and attribute values of any element in an XML document.
[…]
The language specified by xml:lang applies to the element where it is specified (including the values of its attributes), and to all elements in its content unless overridden with another instance of xml:lang.

This means that XML parsing apps have to a) implement xml:lang attribute inheritance on nested elements and b) give XML document authors freedom to choose the structure in which xml:lang attributes are inherited in the document. In other words, XML document authors are free to choose and may create completely different content structures for different languages. Please, note also that specs building on top of the XML spec must not preclude using the xml:lang attribute on any element because the xml namespace is always implicitly imported in all valid XML documents and the xml:lang attribute may be literally used on “any element in an XML document” (including a root element!). Hence, this issue affects all AppStream elements, and not just those colloquially called translatable, like name, summary, p, ul, ol, li, or keyword.