Re: [cti] Internationalization: lang field required or optional?

[Allan Thomson <athomson@lookingglasscyber.com>]

Prefer optional.

 

From: "cti@lists.oasis-open.org" <cti@lists.oasis-open.org> on behalf of "Wunder, John" <jwunder@mitre.org>
Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 12:59 PM
To: "cti@lists.oasis-open.org" <cti@lists.oasis-open.org>
Subject: [cti] Internationalization: lang field required or optional?

 

Hey everyone,

 

We’re getting very close to having a completed approach for internationalization, you can see the full writeup here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15qD9KBQcVcY4FlG9n_VGhqacaeiLlNcQ7zVEjc8I3b4/edit#heading=h.61fy0hlsdirz

 

We do have one remaining question before we can move forward though. As part of the proposal, every single top-level object has a “lang” field, that identifies the language of the text content in that object. What we need to decide is whether we make that field required or optional.

 

If we make the field required, every top-level object in STIX (SDOs and SROs) would have to have a “lang” field in it or it would be invalid STIX. If we make it optional, producers could either include the field or not.

 

Here are some thoughts:

 

Making it required:

-          All SDOs and SROs would have a language tag, so consumers could depend on it being there

-          It would encourage producers to actually fill it out, because they wouldn’t be creating valid STIX otherwise

-          It shows we have a commitment to internationalization

 

Making it optional:

 

-          Any SRO or SDO could have a language tag, so consumers could not depend on it

-          Producers would not have to create it

-          We do have a SHOULD requirement saying that it should be included

 

My opinion is that we should make it optional. If it’s required, I think people who don’t want to do internationalization (especially those creating one-off scripts or open source tools) will hardcode it to English and things will be mislabeled. If it’s optional, I think those who need/want to support internationalization and would do it right (most/all vendors, major open source projects) will populate it correctly regardless…because they need it…while those who couldn’t be bothered will be able to leave it off and we won’t have mis-labeled data. Also it’s almost not worth saying, but we already have a bunch of required fields on every SDO/SRO and I’ve already had one conversation with someone who said there’s a lot of bloat…would like to avoid adding to that.

 

Anyway, what does everyone think…required or optional?

 

John