australian translations

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On Saturday 13 May 2006 07:37, David Symons <ubuntu at liberatedcomputing.net> 
wrote:
> I've seen someone suggest that Aussies that want to translate should put
> their efforts into en_GB.  I reckon that's a great idea - as long as
> those translations could be copied into en_AU later. I've not seen a
> function that can do that though.

I mentioned this idea on the IRC channel last week, but I'm certainly not the 
first to think of it. I don't see much point in splintering the English 
language into dialects, particularly when those dialects are so similar, as 
in the Commonwealth nations.

It'd be far better if the translators for en_AU, en_IN, en_ZA and so on 
collaborated on a unified en_GB. I'd much rather have one comprehensive en_GB 
translation than many disparate and incomplete attempts at localisation. From 
there, the en_GB core can be copied across to the other dialects, and 
dialect-specific words can be added to them.

An alternative implementation might be to have a 'fallback' or 'secondary' 
language, in case a translation is not available in that locale. This can be 
either configurable by the user (via a menu or just in gconf) or hard coded 
into the locale. It would prevent the need to copy en_GB to the other 
locales, since they fall back to en_GB anyway.

I believe that we need to do something to improve the desktop experience for 
non-US English speakers. For far too long they have been treated like 
second-class citizens. I would be glad to lend my services towards any effort 
that can achieve this. Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer, so I'm not sure 
what I can contribute.

Another problem is the openness/responsiveness of the Ubuntu en_GB group. I 
have made a request to join, via Launchpad, but after over a week I have 
still not received a response. For such a plan to succeed, it would be best 
to have the co-operation of the core en-GB translators.

Please correct me if I am incorrect in any of my assumptions about the 
implementation of internationalisation in GNOME/Ubuntu.

-- 
Sridhar Dhanapalan  [Yama | http://www.pclinuxonline.com/]
  {GnuPG/OpenPGP: http://dhanapalan.webhop.net/yama.asc
   0x049D38B4 : A7A9 8A02 78CB AB1B FCE4 EEC6 2DD9 249B 049D 38B4}

"I am a huge believer in the idea that Linux competes within itself. That 
keeps everyone honest." - Linus Torvalds, July 2003
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 191 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-au/attachments/20060514/af5abe87/attachment.pgp