Re: pango and xplanet

[nadim at arabeyes dot org (Nadim Shaikli)]

On Thursday - 27.November.2003 [12:07:02 +0900],
 Tomohiro KUBOTA (debian at tmail dot plala dot or dot jp) wrote:
 > Hello, (cc: nadim; please join the discussion.)

I'm including the 'doc' mailing-list under Arabeyes.org to
get even more opinions - just in case.

 > From: Hari Nair <hari at alumni dot caltech dot edu>
 > Subject: Re: pango and xplanet
 > Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 16:38:39 -0800
 > 
 > > > BTW, Arab city names are done by Nadim and his
 > > > friends.
 > > > Please use the Arab expressions in the
 > > > following file:
 > > 
 > > Thank you!  I have added their changes to a
 > > "pango" marker file.
 > 
 > I have one suggestion.  Latin expression (like "Tokyo")
 > to be written as a comment, for people who want to
 > read the marker file.
 > 
 > > > I heard two ideas from him.  First, how about
 > > > using gettext?
 > > 
 > > I don't know much about gettext but I have thought
 > > about doing this as well.  I'll do some research.
 > > 
 > > I had also considered using the iconv library to
 > > read marker files, but UTF8 encoded marker files
 > > is a better and simpler solution, isn't it?
 > 
 > I imagine gettext will be used for different purpose
 > than the "pango" marker file.  For example, in Japanese
 > gettext file, all cities in the world would be written
 > in Japanese, like the current marker file has all cities
 > in the world in Latin alphabet (like "Tokyo" or "Moscow").
 > Thus, in "localization" mode, all cities will be written in
 > the user's language (Japanese if LANG=ja_JP.eucJP, Latin
 > alphabet if LANG=en_US, and so on).  In another "global"
 > mode, all cities will be written in the cities' languages
 > (Tokyo in Japanese, Moscow in Cyrillic) regardless of the
 > user's language.
 > 
 > However, I don't know whether gettext can be used for a
 > configuration files such as marker file.  It is designed
 > for source codes, I think.
 > 
 > Nadim, do you have any idea?

gettext files (or .pot or .po files as they are sometimes called)
are used for localization purposes.  They usually don't contain
strings that ought not be translated.  In short if you want the
application to have various strings in various languages then the
strings you are opting to exclude from one language should not be
included in the .po file.  As for my opinion on having various cities
written in their native language, that seems like a gimmick and not
a very useful option - what good would something like that be to
someone that doesn't speak Japanese or Russian (it'll look nice
and cool, but be very unpractical) - I'd suggest having all in
english as default and having localized .po files with all city
names translated.

 > > > The second idea from Nadim is that, he and his
 > > > friends would like to add some Arab cities.
 > > > Can you accept their request?
 > > 
 > > I would be happy to add more cities to the list.

For those on the 'doc' list that haven't peered into the
xplanet file, the following cities were listed,

 Baghdad        # Iraq          (+0300 UTC)
 Cairo          # Egypt         (+0200 UTC) 
 Khartoum       # Sudan         (+0200 UTC)

I'd guess we'd need to cover all the timezones by representing
some cities in each of the zones in the Arab world utilizing
its large geographic span (along with the symbolic cities such
as Mecca).  As such I would suggest the following (in addition
to those mentioned above),

 + Muscat, Oman                 (+0400 UTC)
 + Dubai, United Arab Emirates  (+0400 UTC)
 + Mecca, Saudi Arabia          (+0300 UTC)
 + Riyadh, Saudi Arabia         (+0300 UTC)
 + Mogadishu, Somalia           (+0300 UTC)
 + Moroni, Comoros              (+0300 UTC)
 + Damascus, Syria              (+0200 UTC)
 + Beirut, Lebanon              (+0200 UTC)
 + Tripoli, Libya               (+0100 UTC)
 + Tunis, Tunisia               (+0100 UTC)
 + Algiers, Algeria             (+0100 UTC)
 + Casablanca, Morrocco         (+0000 UTC)
 + Nouakchott, Mauritania       (+0000 UTC)

BTW: I believe Mr. Munzir Taha had already translated the
     file sent, and I'm sure he and others would not mind
     doing the extra half dozen cities listed above or
     the entire file if need-be.

FYI: www.worldtimeserver.com & www.worldtimezone.com are
     great resources :-)

Regards,

 - Nadim