Re: [i18n] Fwd: Mandrake 10 install

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Pablo Saratxaga <pablo at mandrakesoft dot com> wrote:
> > Date: Thursday 29 April 2004 04:18 am
> > From: Nadim Shaikli
> > 
> > Munzir, I recently installed MDK-10.0 community on a friend's machine and
> > noticed that in the language section (during the install), hebrew was
> > listed in the Europe section as well as America section.  Could we add
> > Arabic to those sections as well .  I'm not sure why hebrew was listed
> > there - maybe that's a bug in itself, but if its to stand I'd prefer to
> > see Arabic listed as well.
> 
> As I told in the cooker-i18n; Hebrew is in Asia section;
> what you saw in Europe and America section is not Hebrew but Yiddish
> (a language close parent with German, which is written in hebrew
> letters).
> 
> Yiddish is native from Europe, but nowadays there is more people
> using Yiddish from north America than from the native places in Europe.

This sounds like a dangerous precedent - where do you draw the line
on which languages to include/exclude (based on population/usage
numbers, people's requests, personal preference ?)  I highly suggest
to simplify this entire thing and simply list languages alphabetically
with no regard to region/country/etc to avoid any political statements
(it would be logical to list the languages in english followed by the
native script in parenthesis to have a coherent listing).

> Arabic speakers are also present all around the world, but the main
> places where Arabic is used are (west-)Asia and (north-)Africa, so
> it is listed at those places.

Again, I'm not sure about your definition of "main" as there are
very large populations that speak Arabic in Europe and the Americas.

> You simply supposed that something written in hebrew characters was
> Hebrew; while it is often the case, it isn't always, and it wasn't in
> this case.
>  
> I hope this answers your question.

It looked out of place since its neither a native language (I didn't
see 'navajo indian' listed) nor widely used (I didn't see Chinese
or Indian/Hindi listed as part of the Americas as well even though
there are huge populations in that region).  I again, suggest you
simply list out all the languages with no regard to a particular
region else you run the risk of conducting such overly silly
conversations that really don't contribute to anything.

PS: what is noted above is entirely my personal views/opinions that
    have have NOTHING to do with arabeyes (in case someone wants to
    read more into this than there really is).

Regards,

 - Nadim



	
		
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