Hoi,
There are two things I want to raise in this mail: MediaWiki namespaces and the new user interface of the CLDR. Both are extremely relevant because both influence the behaviour of the MediaWiki software. Both have a tendency to take a long time before the effect of changes become available. It is therefore important to us to give this proper attention and inform you about this.
MediaWiki namespaces
the Wikimedia developers are transitioning to a different code repository system. They are changing from SVN to GIT. As one of the results a lot of things are getting reviewed. Included is a list of changes that will change the names of MediaWiki namespaces. As you may know changing namespaces is different from changing MediaWiki messages as it is a change in the configuration of the software. It is one of those things that is done with a lot of care.
The objective of pointing this out is two-fold. When one of the languages below is the language you champion, we do want you to verify it and let us know if this is what is agreed upon by your community. For some languages this may be problematic as they are working towards their first project. The second point is that you may want to have a look at the localisation of the namespaces. Possibly they need changing, possibly they still need to be done. Of relevance is that we do support gender for namespaces it is possible to indicate both male and female users.
languages/messages/MessagesFrp.php - Franco-Provençal
We are going to ask on the wikis for confirmation as well and we are looking for positive feedback by April 5th.
The CLDR user interface
The CLDR or the Common Locale Data Repository is where basic and not so basic information is gathered about languages in a standard. We use this information in the MediaWiki software and we rely on it. We do not like to override any values of this standard. Sometimes we have no choice when the CLDR does not have information on one of the languages we support. Once the CLDR does have data our local information is removed.
The CLDR works with periods where they welcome input from the world. The next period starts on April 4.
At this moment they are asking for comments on the improved user interface of their data collection software. They want to know and we want to know what you think of it. If it works for you, if you can find any bugs. This means that you can test-drive the application and learn to use it as well as find any issues with it. I have copied the invitation to the CLDR Survey Took Beta below.
Enjoy and let us know your experiences.
Thanks,
Gerard
*************************************************
Unicode
CLDR Survey Tool Beta
March 21, 2012 — The Unicode CLDR Survey Tool is open for beta testing
today. CLDR provides key building blocks for software to support
the world's languages, with the largest and most extensive
standard repository of locale data available. The survey tool is
an online tool used by organizations and individuals to contribute
data to this repository, and to vote on alternative contributions.
The survey tool has undergone
substantial revision, with dramatic improvements in performance
and usability. We would appreciate people trying out the tool so
that we can identify any remaining problems before we start data
submission (currently scheduled for April 4). For more
information, see http://goo.gl/7M1IG.
Contents
Access
Guide
How you can help
Known issues
What changed?
Access
- Production Survey Tool. If you have an existing
survey tool account, you can go to the production tool at Production
Survey Tool.
- Smoke-Test Survey Tool. If you don’t have an
account, you can still try out the survey tool using the Smoke
Test version. It will create a test account automatically.
So that you can try out the tool as you
wish, none of the data you enter during beta is saved.
The Smoke Test tool may be restarted at
any time, because it used for development. If you get disconnected
when this happens, then refresh your browser: all of your changes
should be saved.
Guide
If you haven’t used the survey tool
before, you may want to take a quick look at:
- http://cldr.unicode.org/index/survey-tool/guide
- http://cldr.unicode.org/index/survey-tool/walkthrough
This documentation should be updated in
the next few days for some of the changes in UI.
How you can help
Visit and randomly vote and enter
changes.
- Pick your favorite locale
- Visit different Sections of
the locale (Code Lists, etc), and different pages in the
Section.
- Vote
for different choices (including Proposed, Others, Abstain)
- Change
a value (Change column)
- Try
zooming on different columns (clicking on the following
cells)
- St (status, eg error/alert)
- Draft
(the
approval status)
- Voted (the voting status)
- Proposed
/ Others (particular values)
- (Clicking
on Code shows some internals,
not really user-focused item)
- Reset
your Coverage
Level (at
the top). (This changes how many items show).
- Verify that data was
accepted, or is rejected (appropriately) because of an error.
- Periodically, refresh the
entire page you are on and verify that items previously added
remain visible.
- Report any new issues at http://unicode.org/cldr/trac/newticket. (Skip those below). Please
include the URL to the page where you found the error.
Known issues
Please read these over so you know what
to skip:
- Use FireFox/Safari/Chrome,
not IE 8 or other browsers.
- Some locales, such as English
(en), are read-only.
- Do not post comments in the
‘forums’ or try “Show Coverage”
- Some generated examples use
English instead of the local language, or the wrong currency.
- The information in the “Code”
column will be simplified during the beta process; some rows
will move to different sections or pages.
- There will be a bookmark on
each row, for reference.
- Other items may be added to
this list during the beta period
What changed?
- Page access is 10-30 times
faster, depending on the operation.
- Items are submitted
individually (with Return/Enter), instead of having to submit
a whole page.
- Pages are not broken up into
multiple subpages, simplifying navigation.
- Errors and Warnings appear
when you submit an item.
- There is no “zoom” window;
instead, zooming is in-place, with separate versions depending
on what part of a row you click on.