Feature Proposal: Create Packages For Languages

Motivation

Currently languages are shipped as a bunch of .po files in the release. This means that:

1. Only core developers can check in to language files
2. Updates to language files have to be done using a manual file patch
3. There is no way to express a dependency on a language
4. Translations are on the critical path for TWiki releases

Description and Documentation

Repackage language files (.po) as contribs e.g. SpanishTWikiContrib, JapaneseTWikiContrib, GermanTWikiContrib. Remove them from the standard release. This would permit admins to download and install optional language packs from within configure.

These packages would (or do already) contain not just the .po for MAKETEXT's, but also translated topics - as SebastianKlus has been working on in SpanishTWikiContrib.

Examples

Impact

Implementation

-- Contributors: CrawfordCurrie - 01 Aug 2008

Discussion

Good idea

-- KennethLavrsen - 01 Aug 2008

expanded the scope a little - think we should mention LocalizeContrib, TopicTranslationsPlugin and ForUserLanguagesPlugin

-- SvenDowideit - 02 Aug 2008

I totally agree. I happens frequently that you are translating a topic and come back to the .po file because you found a little error. Presently you have to update the .po and the topics seperately, but it would make more sense when both are included in the same package.

Besides, why would you run TWiki in a different language without appreciating translated topics or vice versa?

-- SebastianKlus - 02 Aug 2008

As mentioned on irc, a package could prevent people from using a 5.0 translation on a 4.2 by checking the versions.

-- OliverKrueger - 03 Aug 2008

Could you elaborate that a little? I did not participate on the irc, but am curious about what you discussed there.

-- SebastianKlus - 03 Aug 2008

I am adding some observations that were done by MartinCleaver, SvenDowideit, CrawfordCurrie and me on the spanish MailerContrib some weeks ago.

I copied them here because the original topic was removed (SpanishTWikiContrib is now handled in TWiki's Subversion repository).

-- SebastianKlus - 11 Aug 2008

UnicodeCollation is another aspect of localisation / translation that could really use separate 'language packages' - although we don't yet support Unicode to this level, once we do there will be a need for language specific rules to ensure that national characters are sorted as expected by TWiki.

It would also be helpful, for users of current TWiki, to provide a page with "recommended locale setup for language XYZ". This would simplify InstallationWithI18N and help to steer people away from dangerous character sets such as the very common GB2312 (see JapaneseAndChineseSupport for details).

-- RichardDonkin - 13 Aug 2008