[Localization] Installing the Vietnamese Keyboard for the XO

[Chris Leonard]

On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 6:50 AM, Clytie Siddall <clytie at riverland.net.au>wrote:

> My XO-1 is running Sugar 0.8.21, build 802. I'll ask Nguyệt about hers.
>
> How old is this system? I selected "Vietnamese" in the Language prefs and
> restarted, but hardly anything is translated.
>
>
Build 802 was rolled out in May of 2009.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/8.2.1

It is distinctly possible that many of your translations were not there at
the time the image used on your laptop was flashed.  There is however a
method for getting more recent versions of the language files using language
packs.

See:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Localization/Testing

For an 8.2 series Sugar, you will find the relevant language pack here:
http://people.sugarlabs.org/sayamindu/langpacks/8.2/

It looks like they were last updated in Feb of 2010, so there may still be
some difference between current Pootle PO files and the MO files you'll get
from the language pack link above.

There are also directions for manually going from downloaded PO files to MO
files, if there was substantial work done on lang-vi 0.82 files since Feb
2010, that might be necessary, or you could ask Sayamindu to refresh the 8.2
language packs.

Also, this language pref. does not enable a Vietnamese keyboard layout. I
> can't access our language in the Write activity. My XO-1 does not have a key
> to switch between layouts, if that's relevant.
>
> This really does bring up the need for testing before implementing
> localizations. :(
>
>
Yes, unfortuantely OLPC does not have unlimited resources and so depends a
great deal on local deployment partners to help out with many of the
specifics of their language requirements.  In the case of Vietnamese, there
is no "officially OLPC-sponsored" in-country program, just volunteers like
you.  This is part of the reason that Contributor's Program laptops are made
available to volunteers willing to work through the many details involved in
a full local-language experience on the XO and pursue or provide fixes for
any issues that arise in the testing process.  The lessons learned by the
early pioneers are captured to smooth the road for those that follow later.


> On the OLPC wiki, there are some pages that may be of interest:
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Keyboard_layouts
>
>
> This doesn't list a Vietnamese layout.
>

The layouts listed are those for which manufacturing designs for the
membranes have been proposed or finalized.  That is typically done for
languages where a major deployment is planned, thereby justifying the cost
of a localized keyboard membrane.  There is also a link on that page to the
XKB files, which might be the issue that needs investigation.


> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Keyboard_layouts/xkb
>
>
> The required dead keys seem to exist: we just need them in a Vietnamese
> layout with the added base vowels.
>
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Customizing_NAND_images#Keyboard
>
>
> Re. the item on timezones further down the page, the timezone list does not
> include my location (CST Australia). I've logged a ticket at sugarlabs.
>
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Creating_A_New_Keyboard_Layout
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Checking_the_Layout_configuration
>
>
> I'm a little hesitant to set a Vietnamese keyboard layout if there isn't
> one on the machine. I don't know this machine well enough to mess with its
> setup on the command line.
>

Well if you don't try it, I'm not sure who will.  Starting to work a bit
with the command line is probably going to be important to do the sorts of
things you want in localization testing for Vietnamese.  It is just not
possible for an XO laptop to be ready for every language in the world fresh
out-of-the-box.  One of the beauties of the XO laptop is that reflashing
from a USB stick is really quick and easy.  This page gives a recipe to get
back to a basic build 802 install, no matter how badly you've messed around
on the command line.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/No-fail_update

It is not just an update process, it is a complete re-imaging of the machine
back to 802 baseline.


> I was also a bit puzzled by this one-sentence page:
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Vietnamese
>
> as Vietnamese hasn't been an ideographic language for nearly 200 years.
> It's Latin-based. We have a very old ideographic script (Chữ Nôm) which is
> only used in historic documents.
>
>
If there is anything on the OLPC wiki that you think is wrong or confusing,
you should change it.  It's a wiki and there is probably no one better
qualified to make corrections on lang-vi issues than you.

cjl
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