Pidgin 2.7.2 released!

[Javier Fernandez-Sanguino]

On 26 July 2010 16:29, John Bailey <rekkanoryo at rekkanoryo.org> wrote:
> The installer actually presents two language choices.  The first appears
> *immediately* upon installer launch.  This is where the translations that meet
> the 50% installer string translation requirement are shown.  There is *nothing*
> else visible or available at this point during the installation process.  Once
> you select a language here, the installer will continue in whichever chosen
> language and then default to selecting the appropriate localization.  This
> choice also has the side effect of causing Pidgin to run in the selected language.
(...)

The problem is that the *second* language choice is not at al evident
to users. It is a selectable "component" (much in the same way as you
would add plugins or add the spellchecker) labled 'Localization' (not
languages) and using the ISO codes (not the language names) for the
'language'.

In addition, selecting a 'language' does not enable it (even if only
*one* is chosen) for the end-user.

It is quite clear to me that an average user, at least without support
and guidance, cannot make a sensible choice for language selection in
the NSIS installer.


> This is likely not terribly difficult, except that untranslated languages will
> almost certainly not appear in the installer language selection menu in their
> "native" form (i.e. the user will see "Spanish" instead of "Español").  I think
> the better choice here would be for the installer to have no effect whatsoever
> on the language Pidgin is run in, and instead, this should be determined at
> runtime by system locale just like it is in UNIX.

However, if the localization is not there (which is not unless the
user selects the 'component' which is not that intuitive), unlike UNIX
the system locale will be useless.

It would be much more useful to have the installer select appropiate
localization components *first* based on the system locale (which I
believe should not be so difficult) *and* have the Pidgin program use
the user's locale (not the registry key that indicates the language
used by the installer) to configure itself.

> The bottom line here is that although a few people don't like it, in the end
> this will be better for all our users.  I'm sure someone will argue this point,
> but I guarantee once we get releases out that have enough installer strings
> translated, this complaint will fade away just like many other complaints in the
> past.  Thus, I'm not particularly inclined to want to make any changes to the
> 50% installer strings policy.

As long as the installation of the language is so difficult for
end-users I would suggest finding good ways to make the installer
install a proper language for the user *even* if the 50% criteria is
not met. So, in a default run, the user might not see the installer in
his native language (because the 50% strings criteria is not met) but
he can see the program, even if partially translated.

In any case, I suggest you try to install, as it is now, Pidgin in
Spanish with the offline installer in Windows. You will probably
inmediately see that the way it is provided now it is effectively
hiding a translation which is quite complete for a minor quirk (a 50%
criteria on only one component). Be it Spanish or any other language I
do not see how this is better for our end-users in the long run.

I have been doing translations for free software projects for over 10
years, and have worked with end-users, and I assure you that users
prefer to have a program that they partly understand (half-translated)
that a program they don't understand at all (fully untranslated)

Bottom line. My suggestion is: either the installer is improved to
make installation+enablement of local languages of easy or the 50%
criteria should either be dropped or only applied to when the *full*
Pidgin PO file is under 50% translated.

Regards,


Javier