[vorbis] tags in comment field - why?

[Glenn Maynard]

Well, my last question about this was in the middle of other stuff, but
it's a basic one: why put tag info in the comment field at all?  Why not
use the XML field that's already there?  It gives the flexibility needed
to do things like translated tags easily, and keeps tag info in the same
format as other data--potentially simplifying editors which read other
types of metadata.

The only reason I've come up with is to simplify reading tags for
embedded devices who don't want an XML parser.  A better solution for
this, I think, would be to define the tags as XML and then export the
data to the comment field, reducing it as necessary (ie. where there are
multiple languages, use one based on user preferences), and always
considering the XML version authoritative.

Another thing to bear in mind is that UTF-8 data alone isn't always enough
to render it correctly.  You need to know what language it's in, too,
when you have CJK text.  You can guess--chances are, if it's my file,
it's Japanese, not Chinese--and less intelligent renderers will just 
select a font and if it's the wrong one, display the wrong thing.
However, it'd be nice to allow it to be done right; to allow programs to
let me choose MS Gothic for Japanese and NSimSun for Chinese.  (IE allows
this.)

Why put tags in a separate, severely limited format?  ID3V1 did that
(at orders of magnitude worse, of course), and the switch to ID3V2 was
painful.  


-- 
Glenn Maynard

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