[Chandler-dev] Localization loading discussion

[Brian Kirsch]

Hello,
There is an ongoing discussion regarding bug 6007 "Need to localize code 
that is run before repository is up".

http://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007


Since others may have thoughts and opinions on the subject I am 
forwarding to the list.

Basically it comes down to the issue that Chandler needs access to 
certain localized strings and resources
before the Repository is created.



------- /Comment #5 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#c5> From Brian 
Kirsch <mailto:bkirsch at osafoundation.org> 2006-06-07 17:07 PST / [reply 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#add_comment>] 
-------

Yes Markku is correct,
We are *not* storing translations in the repository.

There was discussion of storing the paths to translation files in the repo and
registering translations at installParcel time. But frankly, I am not conviced
this is the right approach at least for the Chandler level translations since
that still leaves a large edge case where we need translation strings before
the repo is created.

I am leaning at this point to just having a know directory structure for
Chandler level translations and resources and using scripts to install
localizations in to that structure.

Third party devs could use the installParcel mechanism since the repo will be
present at that point.

An alternate approach is to have a registration file that lives outside of the
repo and contains the locations of Chandler level translations and resources.
That was a developer could add a translation for Chandler outside the Chandler
directory structure and just append the location to the file.

I think we should avoid the repo at all costs for Chandler level translations
as using the repo implies that we have to have another mechanism for loading
pre-repo strings and images.

There is nothing wrong with an item /block storing its translations in the repo
however.

As long as we have a means to refresh the data if the locale or schema version
changes.





------- /Comment #4 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#c4> From Markku 
Mielityinen <mailto:mmmm at osafoundation.org> 2006-06-07 14:50 PST / 
[reply 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#add_comment>] 
-------

Do you see some benefit in this approach? Items that are stored to repo use _()
when they are created. Obviously these items work only when repo is up. Items
that are not stored in the repo can/and should use _() each time they are
created (that is each time that you run the app at least). And _() service is
up all the time. I don't see a translation case when you would like to
store/load to/from repo when it is not up; obviously one exists but I just
cannot see it. In my eyes repo and translations (and other resources) are more
or less orthogonal. The fact that we have translated string in repo is more an
effect than cause (causality). I don't see a reason to put all translations to
repo. Maybe you want a CPIA style splashscreen or something like that but to me
this seems more or less secondary. So an example please :)



------- /Comment #3 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#c3> From Heikki 
Toivonen <mailto:heikki at osafoundation.org> 2006-06-07 14:24 PST / [reply 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#add_comment>] 
-------

The problem is that we intend to store the translations in the repository. This
means the boostrap code has no access to translations since we don't have a
repository yet. So we need a different way of translating the bootstrap code.


------- /Comment #2 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#c2> From Markku 
Mielityinen <mailto:mmmm at osafoundation.org> 2006-06-07 14:17 PST / 
[reply 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#add_comment>] 
-------

I am not sure I that I understand the problem. _() translation macro should
work right from the start, right? At least mine does and it loads translations
from an egg according to the locale setting. And all resources work the same
way. I think that you can even have localized XRC based dialogs if you want to
:) Please give a more detailed description of the problem. This questions
relates to bug 4656 <https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4656> as well.



------- /Comment #1 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#c1> From Brian 
Kirsch <mailto:bkirsch at osafoundation.org> 2006-06-07 13:31 PST / [reply 
<https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6007#add_comment>] 
-------

yes this is a known issue which I am currently thinking about how best to solve
from an architectual standpoint.










-- 
Brian Kirsch -  Cosmo Developer / Chandler Internationalization Engineer
Open Source Applications Foundation
543 Howard St. 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
http://www.osafoundation.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/chandler-dev/attachments/20060607/a69a86c8/attachment.htm