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Draft new charter and goals for v49/v50 and beyond #1065

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Draft new charter and goals for v49/v50 and beyond
aphillips Apr 1, 2025
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Update docs/goals.md
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Don't forget v48
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55 changes: 47 additions & 8 deletions docs/goals.md
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# Goals and Non-Goals

This document defines the purpose of the Message Format Working Group (MFWG)
and informs the decisions about the scope and the priorities of its efforts.
This document contains the charter for the MessageFormat Working Group (MFWG)
and informs decisions about the scope and priority of its efforts.

## Goals
## Charter

The primary task of the MFWG is to develop an industry standard for the
representation of localizable dynamic message strings. A **_dynamic message
string_** is a string whose content changes due to the value of or insertion
A **_dynamic message string_** is a string whose content changes due to the value of or insertion
of some data value or values.

The design goals are listed below.
The _Unicode MessageFormat Standard_ is an industry standard for the representation
of localizable _dynamic message strings_.

The MessageFormat Working Group maintains and extends the Unicode MessageFormat Standard,
provides documentation;
encourages implementation, including the development of tools and best practices;
manages default and Unicode-defined function sets;
and provides for interoperability with other standards.

The MessageFormat Working Group is a working group the CLDR-TC.

## Goals

- Encourage adoption of Unicode MessageFormat as measured by developing [messageformat.unicode.org]
and other appropriate materials to include a user guide, MF1 migration guide,
implementation support, and usage materials while maintaining a high bar
as a model for other Unicode websites.
- Support a determination there are at least ### additional interoperable implementations.
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This seems more like a measure of how well we've succeeded at the preceding goal.

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- Support a determination there are at least ### additional interoperable implementations.

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The is a strawman for an implementation goal. Yes, it's a measure of how well our documentation has worked, but I envision a slightly more muscular approach to platforms teams (especially members)

- Support migration and adoption by moving all functions and options necessary to match the features of
ICU MessageFormat ("MF1") to Stable.
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This needs some qualifiers, as e.g. ChoiceFormat is still technically valid MF1, and there are places (e.g. datetime skeletons) where we're considering shipping a strict subset of the MF1 capabilities.

- Support migration and adoption by making significant additions to the default function set to support
additional use cases.
- Develop a machine-readable function description format or syntax to support the needs of
implementations, including localization tools.

## Deliverables (v49, v50)

- Deliver as Stable all remaining functions needed to support migration from MF1
- `:datetime` and all date/time functions
- percent formatting
- Deliver at least as Technical Preview (v49) and Stable (v50) all draft functions and options
- `:unit`
- `u:id`, `u:dir`, and `u:locale` options
- Deliver as Technical Preview additional functions to support significant additional functionality.
Such functions could include: lists, ranges, relative time, inflection.
- Deliver as Technical Preview a machine-readable function description format or syntax.

## Design Goals

The original design goals are listed below.

1. Allow users to write messages that are both grammatically
correct and can be translated in a grammatically correct manner
Expand All @@ -31,6 +68,8 @@ The design goals are listed below.

## Deliverables

The original deliverables were:
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What's the utility of retaining this? If there is a need, then the section title ought to be qualified to reflect the status.

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It's temporary while we work through the current charter.


1. A formal definition of the canonical data model for representing
localizable _dynamic message strings_.

Expand All @@ -39,7 +78,7 @@ The design goals are listed below.
escape sequences, whitespace, markup, as well as parsing errors.

3. A specification for a one-to-one mapping between the data model and XLIFF.
_Note: This deliverable is not included in the LDML46.1 Final Candidate release._
_Note: This deliverable was not included in the LDMLv47 release._

4. A specification for resolving messages at runtime, including
runtime errors.
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