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0 pointsxdennis1y ago0 comments

> No, you can't use the full name, since some languages have very long names.

Yes, every language has a name and you can use that. If you prefer an imprecise flag over the actual name of the language then what you're saying is that you prefer style over substance. There's always space to show the language name.

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closewith1y ago

Are you seriously arguing against the use of ideograms? User interfaces without them would be unusable.

zdragnar1y ago

Many languages don't correspond to flag ideograms, and many flags don't correspond to a single language.

Ideograms are fine so long as they can be replaced with a canonical word or phrase and still make sense.

Flags for languages fails that in many cases around the world- if I want to select Quebecoise French, neither the Canadian, French, or Quebec Province flags are appropriate.

Likewise, Switzerland has no official language, and many countries such as Belgium have multiple.

layer81y ago

Not the GP, but ideograms/pictograms are overused, half of the time one has no idea what they are supposed to mean. That was already bad in desktop interfaces where you would at least get a tooltip when hovering the mouse over it, but that has gone out of fashion as well.

zmgsabst1y ago

There’s really not.

I frequently travel in places where I don’t speak the primary language — and having to hunt down a menu in a language I can’t read sounds a lot worse than having a flag I know visible on the main page.

troad1y ago

Why did you use letters to send your reply? Letters are a symbolic representation of language, but they are imprecise. I don't know the prosody of your utterance, what tone you used, what accent you're speaking, etc. This is unacceptable and I am very offended. /s

Symbols are useful. You can quibble over the symbols chosen (they don't seem to do a lot of physical weighing in courts?), but that is fundamentally besides the point, which is 'how do I convey this widely understood concept in a limited amount of space?'.

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