Language chooser at login

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

Robert,

I take it that you would like to see a solid base for decision that we
do not have access to. Given that, to me the natural conclusion is that
Ubuntu keeps providing the feature for now.

Btw, your position on this topic seems to have changed rapidly. The
language chooser is included in the design description at
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/LightDM/Design, which I suppose
formed a part of the base for the decision to make LightDM the default
dm in Ubuntu. And a few weeks ago you stated explicitly on this list
that the feature will be included in the Oneiric release. What happened?

On 2011-07-04 04:44, Robert Ancell wrote:
> On 2011-07-03 08:01, Gunnar Hjalmarsson wrote:
>> Those who typically make use of the language chooser on the login screen
>> are reasonably users who alter between two or more display languages.
>> Maybe that group is a small share of the Ubuntu users, but to them it's
>> much more convenient to be able to set the language before logging in,
>> compared to logging in, opening language-selector, changing the
>> language, logging out and then logging in again.
> 
> Can you provide some examples of these types of users, and why/how they
> currently switch language?

I probably wouldn't do that better than you. But if you think about it,
if you would require that sort of insight about every feature we are
currently providing, there are a lot of features that should be wiped
out right away. ;-)

> I haven't heard of any standard user requirements to switch between more
> than two languages, or two languages that do not include English (please
> post here if you know of any).

In another reply Oliver Grawert just gave us some examples worth
considering.

> There are disadvantages to keeping this feature:
> - This feature is quite complex to support.

How? Once in place, I fail to see that complexity. Ok, since I worked
with the current Natty solution, I'm about as biased as anyone can be...

> - By having this feature both in the login screen and in the control
> center we are duplicating functionality but providing an inconsistent
> method of configuring it.

Agreed. Certainly there is room for organizing the code better,
including sharing code between the dm and language-selector. I'd be
happy to help with that.

> - Users can accidentally change it, giving an opportunity to make their
> session unusable.

???

As I said in a bug comment, I understand that you are loaded with
various other aspects of LightDM, to make it stable before the Oneiric
release, and that you may not feel for struggling with a language
chooser on top of it. But you also know that I have offered to help out
with getting the functionality in place. You just need to open the door.

Then let's develop this aspect of the desktop further after having
considered various options more carefully and in a more structured way
than currently is the case.

-- 
Gunnar Hjalmarsson
https://launchpad.net/~gunnarhj