On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 05:06:43PM +0430, Arash Bijanzadeh wrote: > > 1. Localization the strings for RTL languages are only part of the whole > > picture of truly localizing an interface. For example, progress bars > > should also be RTL, the ok and cancel should be switched around...etc > > .etc that means localizing an app is more than just translating the PO > > files. It is getting involved in the changes the UI should adopt to > > accommodate true RTL languages. > I don't think all of this as a must be. There is lots of more important things > that should be done for RTL languages in linux, like a true support of RTL at > the shell. I question whether the *shell* should ever have explicit RTL support. Indeed, I wonder whether adding bidi and shaping support to slang at all is really the correct course of action; it seems to be the only option currently available, but is it really slang/curses that should be responsible for this, or is it the responsibility of the terminal? Hmm -- on second thought, shells (through libreadline, etc.) already have to have special handling for utf8, for cursor keys; perhaps bidi/shaping falls in the same category. One way or another, decisions need to be made about *which* level of technology is supposed to implement RTL, and consistently enforced; debconf will already look interesting running under mlterm now... BTW -- for ligature characters, what do people expect the behavior of cursor keys to be? > > Therefore, I suggest we have a debian-28n-bidi (l10n + i18n) mailing > > list that focus on localization and internationalization combined > > The list will help us discuss translation and UI changes that focus on > > bidi/RTL languages. For example we can discuss changes such ad: > > - translation of PO files of course > > - curses lib modifications to add language switching capabilities (not > > sure if curses takes care of that) > > - console fonts support (making sure there is a single font that all RTL > > languages can use. if not we can add the necessary glyphs) I think this would be best discussed with implementors of other non-latin languages. I know non-Latin support post-install has been shaky at times, but it's definitely being worked on; best to collaborate with the Russian, Chinese, etc. teams to avoid duplication of effort. > This one is really important and may cause all the translations to be useless. > I think we need an BiDi enabled ISO image from d-i CD so we can see what is > happening to our strings ( Just let us one week to translate some). Well, slang -3.1 is already available from http://incoming.debian.org/ thanks to Alastair, and should be in the archive later today, so starting tomorrow, all sid d-i CDs should have bidi/shaping support. :) > It would be also great if Steve could provide us a mini-HOWTO for creating a > simple application with BiDi-enabled Slang to check how it reacts in certain > circumstances Installing libfribidi0 and slang1a-utf8 >= 1.4.9-3.1 should be enough to give you bidi-enabled slang for all applications (e.g., debconf). Cheers, -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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