Pidgin 2.7.2 released!

[John Bailey]

On 07/26/2010 09:59 AM, Ethan Blanton wrote:
> Automatically is the key word here.  You certainly can select it.  I
> agree with your point below that this requires people to know their
> way around the installer; I haven't *used* the installer, so I don't
> know why this selection is hard to find.

"Localizations" is one of the last groups of selectable components.  It requires
that a user scroll downward in a small scrollable area.  This is apparently
beyond most of our users who complain.  The other part of this problem is more
related to your text below, so I will explain there.

> Note that it appears to me, from the outside, that the biggest problem
> is that this 50% requirement was sort of injected without warning at
> the same time as the NSIS strrings were added to the potfile, and on a
> time frame which did not allow many translators to get their
> translations updated.  The NSIS installer was previously not
> translated via the pofile mechanism, so when it was moved *to* this
> mechanism for 2.7.1, in many cases it was in poor shape.  Moving it
> into the pofile mechanism will, we believe, allow us to maintain
> better installer translations on Windows; the purpose of this move was
> precisely *because* the Unix strings were well translated but the
> NSIS installer was very poorly translated in many languages.

Let's not forget that most of our NSIS translations hadn't been updated since
*before* we renamed in 2007.  That's three years ago, during which the installer
has undergone a number of string changes.  Whether translators like it or not,
this change of how installer translations happen is a net win because our good
UNIX translators will see additional strings and translate them, meaning we're
no longer dependent on someone to figure out the black magic that is NSIS
translations.

> The NSIS installer strings were moved to the .pot on 5/20, and 2.7.1
> was released on 2.7.9 with both the new translations and the 50%
> requirement.  2.7.2 did not update translations.  It is my feeling
> that this short update window and the subsequent long period of time
> without substantial translation updates is the real "problem" here.

Most likely.

> The surprise here is that so many users can't find the installation
> language, to me.  Users who read and write English just fine, even.
> We have users come to the IRC channel and swear there's no option to
> install in Spanish or Russian (the two languages which seem to have
> been hit hardest here), even when told there is.  They'll re-run the
> installer and still say they couldn't find it.  As I've said multiple
> times, I haven't seen this installer, so I have no idea why it's so
> hard.

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 second place where language is an option is later in the installer when
choosing what components to install.  Options here include whether to install
GTK+, spell checking support, a choice of what (if any) localizations to
install, etc.  As I said above, the user must scroll downward in the list of
selectable components to find localizations.  Selecting a localization here does
*not* cause Pidgin to run in that selected language because you can select more
than one localization to install.

> I tend to think the installer should default to installing Pidgin in
> the system language, even if the installer itself is not translated,
> as I said before.  I don't know how hard this is to achieve.

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.

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.

John

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