Subject: are we ready for localized installers yet?
From: Paul Rohr (paul@abisource.com)
Date: Fri Aug 31 2001 - 17:11:05 CDT
At 08:07 PM 8/30/01 -0500, Michael D. Pritchett wrote:
>Additionally - the system can be localized creating non-english Install
>version with appropriate dictionaries etc....
Hi Michael,
What are you thinking the Win32 package mix should be for 0.9.4? I'm
thinking that it'd definitely help to have separate installers for:
- en-US binary with dictionary,
- individual dictionaries, and perhaps
- a big download of all dictionaries for a region (say, western europe)
I'm glad that the NSIS toolkit seems localizable, because some day I'd love
to have binary packages that Just Work for other locales than en-US (even if
I shudder at the number of packages we'd need to build and test).
However, I'd recommend holding off on localized *installers* until we have
all the pieces required to make such packages Just Work for non-English
speakers. Would it make sense to wait until most or all of the following
Just Work for a locale, before releasing an installer for that locale?
- localized app UI (menus, toolbars, strings)
- localized help (content and pictures)
- localized dictionaries (fr-FR and fr-CA, for example)
- localized README, COPYING, etc. files
- localized templates and other content
- localized installer
and perhaps even:
- localized website with download instructions
I'd like to continue our precedent of ensuring that church secretaries can
easily grab an installer, and it Just Works for them. We're still working
on getting that all together for en-US, and I'd hate for fr-FR folks to have
a more crippled experience.
bottom line
-----------
Before we start experimenting with localized installers, let's make sure we
have our ducks in a row with all portions of the en-US product. That way,
translators can do the entire product at once, instead of having to keep up
with moving targets in all the areas listed above.
Paul
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