[Localization] Languages in 8.2

[Sayamindu Dasgupta]

Hi Greg,

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 5:29 PM, Greg Smith <gregsmitholpc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Sayamindu,
>
> Thanks a lot for adding a list of languages to the 8.2 release notes page:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/8.2.0#Languages_and_keyboards
>
> I noticed that the Language choice in the Sugar control panel:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Sugar_Control_Panel_Language.png
>
> is a little more specific than the name of the language in the list. You
> may want to make your list more granular so it matches exactly what the
> user has to select in the control panel.
>

Ok, I'll do that. However, we _do not_ (yet) do separate translations
for variations Peruvian Spanish and Uruguayan Spanish. Do you think it
may create confusion for the users if we listed the languages like
Spanish/Peru, Spanish/Spain, etc etc ?

> Also, can you double check the keyboard list and fix any errors. I want
> to make sure we only list real keyboards that people can order and use.
> Let me know if I need to check elsewhere to get you the details on that.
> Also, I added English to the keyboard list. Hope I got the syntax and
> link correct on that.
>

Are the Spanish and Portuguese keyboard layouts country specific ? I
ask this because they are linked as OLPC_Argentina_Keyboard and
OLPC_Brasil_Keyboard respectively. Also, I don't think we support the
Nepali keyboard yet.

> Two questions on the languages section:
> 1 - Are the translations for all of those languages in the build
> already? That is, can someone install 8.2 (or its latest Joyride) and
> just switch to any of those languages without downloading or installing
> an additional bits?
>

We filter out some translations via Pilgrim. Currently the
translations which go into the build are

English, Spanish, Arabic, Igbo, Polish, Yoruba, Brazilian Portuguese,
Macedonian, Italian, French, Hausa, Greek, Mongolian, Hindi, Thai,
Amharic, Khmer, Nepali, Urdu (Pakistan), Kinyarwandan

I think based on the current deployments, we need to change this. I'll
send a new list after going through the deployment list.

Apart from this, the languages should be in the sugar packages.
However, again, some language administrators might not have committed
the files (I sent out personal reminder mails to most of the language
administrators just before the 0.82 sugar release, and some of them
were probably busy with other stuff, since I did not hear back from
them).

The safest way is therefore to use the language packs.

> 2 - I understand that we have the ability to add a "language pack" after
> the fact. I saw this URL on that:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Localization/LanguagePacks
>
> Which XO release allow that? Can that be done on 711 or 708 or 703? Or
> perhaps its only possible with 8.2 on.
>

The language packs support the Update.1 (7xx series), the 8.2 series,
as well as the bleeding edge joyride builds.

> Those are probably basic questions but I wanted to double check with you
> to make sure I have 100% accurate information before I talk with people
> in the Rwanda, Haiti and other countries.
>
> BTW someone reminded me yesterday of how hard localization was before
> Pootle and the language community came together. This is definitely one
> of the most powerful and effective communities in our organization. You
> guys are doing great and its making a huge impact!
>

Yes, I would really like to take this opportunity to thank our
translators for the incredible work they have been doing for the past
9/10 months. I have never seen a community grow up and mature so
quickly, and at the same time be so productive. Thanks to all of you
:-).

Cheers,
Sayamindu


-- 
Sayamindu Dasgupta
[http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings]