Of its own interface, yes, that would be a nightmare.
The issue with LanguageXX.php is this: two ways to translate the interface exist (in practice). With one, translations are activated on that Wikipedia as soon as they are submitted (Mediawiki namespace). With the other, a developer has to be asked to activate it, adjustments are more difficult to make, and activation is entirely at the developer's leisure.
Many more recent translations have been exclusively namespace because people didn't forsee the problems that might be caused by not using LanguageXX.php.
It's fairly simple to export the MediaWiki namespace translations into a LanguageXX.php file, and a bot could probably be made for it, but even then it would probably be a while before anybody activated them. (I can't do that because my programming skills are limited to qbasic, html, and unl)
Mark
On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 17:55:08 +0000, Rowan Collins rowan.collins@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 18:43:29 -0700, Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
Nope, you can choose an interface language now.
Unfortunately for many Wikipedias, this uses the LanguageXX.php file and NOT whatever might be in the mediawiki namespace on that Wikipedia
- thus you can't view the interface in Kannada, or Navajo, or etc...
For obvious reasons, it would be a bit of a nightmare if every wiki could include a seperate customised version of its interface in every language; and the different wikipedias will customise things in ways dependent on their *community*, not just the language.
Presumably (I hope I'm not reopening a can of worms here) the languages you mention can become available to whoever wants them as soon as somebody creates an appropriate LanguageXX.php, so it's not so much a problem of how the interface selection works, as the status of those translations.
-- Rowan Collins BSc [IMSoP]