[thelist] DBs and multi languages

"Warden, Matt" wrote:
> 
> 1. Save a cookie (or similar multi-page state) like this:
>     if "en" within_string $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE then
>         $cookie("languageID") = 1
>     elseif "fr" within_string $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE then
>         $cookie("languageID") = 2
>     ...

This is a bit of a tangent, but can I just make a plea on behalf of
expatriates everywhere.

Please, please, either ASK people what language they want to browse in,
or at the very least, offer a way to change language (and then save it
to the cookie as above.)

It's extremely frustrating when you're not in a situation to change the
default "accept langauge" settings in your browser, and are stuck with
someone trying to be too clever and serving you up the wrong language
with no way to change it.

Many people don't know how, or where, to change this setting.  People on
locked down corporate desktops where you can't change anything are stuck
with what they have.  People using internet cafe's can't usually change
the settings.  I do know how to change it, and I still get the wrong
language served up most times.  

Using the ip address to decide is a definite no-no: I used to live in
Switzerland... on seeing a .ch domain, would you serve up German,
French, Italian or even Romansch?  My first language is English, my
second Swedish, and I can barely manage in German.  If I got the German
page and couldn't change it, I wouldn't bother unless I really really
need to know what's on the page. Serving me French automatically would
be worse than useless - so how do you decide?  If you don't have a
translation for Norwegian, but you do for Danish, do you default to
that, or to English, or German.  Do Canadians get french or english? So
many questions.

By all means, default to *something* other than english if that seems
best, and many times you'll be right.. just don't lock people into an
arbitrary decision made on the server side.

Second thing (then I'll stop, I promise,) if you are nice and offer a
way to change language, then please don't use flags to denote language. 
Iraq and Iran speak the same language, but do you think people from
either country would click on the flag of the other, for any reason? 
Which flag would you use for say, Albanian, Serbian, Croatian. Why would
a native Swedish speaking Finn (and there are some) click a Swedish
flag.. they're not Swedish, and would likely be insulted to be called
so. How about more common languages - why should Austrians click a
German flag? My mother in law wouldn't click a US flag to see the
english pages, until I explained to her it wasn't just for "americans" -
she learnt british style english in school, and connecting a foreign
flag with a language honestly didn't occur to her.

Best solution: use the name of the language, in that language, plain
text... "Svenska" "English" "Deutsch" - clear, no room for
misunderstandings or offense, and doesn't take up hardly any space.  And
maybe a link to a page of instructions on how you do change this setting
in common browsers.

Heh, sorry to go on so long, this is one of my worst pet peeves is all
:)

-- 
Lauri W, 
Köping, Sweden