[theforum] internationalisation
Martin Burns
martin at easyweb.co.uk
Sun Dec 7 03:54:16 CST 2008
On 7 Dec 2008, at 02:22, Erika wrote:
> Martin wrote about it here:
> http://wiki.evolt.org/wiki/Internationalisation_and_Localisation
> But I have a difficult time understanding what Martin is saying,
> or how
> to implement the vision as articulated.
Which bit isn't clear?
In technical terms:
a) Need for users to be able to set a language pref and/or to do that
automatically from browser string. Drupal does that for free.
b) Interface needs multi-lingual support by having translations of a
moderately large, but limited set of strings, and for the set to swap
depending on (a) above. Drupal gives us that for free (and in fact
we're already using it to relabel some UI elements in more evolt-like
English terms). To extend it needs translators.
c) Main content needs multi-lingual support. Can't remember how well
Drupal supports this, but essentially, articles need the ability to
have multiple versions from which the displayed version is as per (a)
above.
d) All content needs to be HTML-marked up with correct language,
particularly at changes within a page. I imagine this is a template
issue, assuming (a) above.
and in policy terms:
e) there is no assumption of a 'main language' although all Interface
and (nearly) all content is in one or other variation of English
already, and this can be considered as a default pick if nothing else
is available or chosen (think: Search bots). Therefore no mandatory
requirement for any given article to be translated into any given
language. While more translations are always good, we will never hold
up an article for lack of translations - assuming that one of our
editors understands it well enough to review of course.
Cheers
Martin
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