[Localization] 8.2 Languages, Keyboards and Layouts

[Sayamindu Dasgupta]

Hi,

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 6:26 PM, Greg Smith <gregsmitholpc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Sayamindu and team,
>
> Can I get a sanity check on the documentation regarding language support
> in 8.2?
>
> The relevant section of the release notes is at:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_Notes/8.2.0#Languages_and_keyboards
>
> Please confirm that all of those languages listed are in the base 8.2
> image. Can you also add the localization code e.g. mn_MN and maybe the
> text as it would appear in the language control panel if you think that
> would be useful.
>

I added more detailed information  - let me know if you need anything
else in there.

> You can use a wild card to cover and a note to cover sub-variants. e.g.
> es_* means we support Spanish and you get the same translation for all
> variants.
>
> Another helpful item (aka not critical but nice to have if someone has
> time) here would be to link to the documentation on how to change
> keyboard mappings. A brief explanation about what to do to change the
> keyboard layout may go a long way towards answering support questions.
>

I'll try to come up with a document on this. The problem is that
changing keyboard layouts on a permanent basis requires modification
of the manufacturing data. Do you want me to come up with the process
for a permanent change, or do you want the process for a temporary
change ?


> BTW for my own edification, do we "automatically" change the keyboard
> layout if we load 8.2 on an XO with a non-English keyboard?
>

Yes. When we flash a non English XO, we have scripts (part of
olpc-utils) which deduce the keyboard layout from the manufacturing
data, and then write the relevant configuration file during first
boot.


> Also, please see the release check list for this release at:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/ECO/8.2.0/Checklist#Test
>

Looks OK to me (just a note: testing Amharic keyboard will require
testing of Compose sequences as well, around 300 of them).

> We want a somewhat more rigorous test of a few key languages. Please
> update that section of the checklist as needed and let me know what
> final test you think we should do to "sign off" on a language in this
> release.

Ideally, the language should be changed, and then the one hour smoke
test should be run with the new language being active. Plus the
keyboard layout should be tested. If the one hour smoke test is not
viable, at least as a bare minimum,
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/1_hour_smoke_test#Try_out_a_few_Activities
should be run. This is because we have a history of activities not
starting up/crashing due to problems in translations.

Thanks,
Sayamindu




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