[Foundation-l] MediaWiki i18n "call to arms"

Mon Apr 2 08:13:23 UTC 2007

No, there's no reason. (well, there are some, but they are relatively
minor -- that is, messages on Wikipedia may be customized for our
site, so that instead of actually using {{SITENAME}} or that sort of
thing like they're supposed to, they might just use the word
"Wikipedia" because it displays the same in the UI when useed with
Wikipedia (but not when used on another site).

Just that nobody's done it, and nobody cares to for some unknown reason.

In fact, it would be very easy to do.

On 02/04/07, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Regarding this, there is something I don't quite understand. zh-cn and
> zh-tw show similar translation completion stats of about 35%, but if I
> go to zh.wikipedia.org, I sincerely doubt I will find many English
> system messages.
>
> So is the problem that some projects don't propagate their changes
> from the MediaWiki namespace back to the MessagesXX.php files (which
> is what "qualifies" as being translated)?
>
> I think it must be. In the stats dv has 0% but dv.wikipedia.org looks
> pretty sweet. certainly more than 0%. :)
>
> So, is there some reason it would be a bad idea to run a script to
> gather up these messages and just make the MessagesXX.php from them?
> Could it really be so hard?? (I mean, Unicode aside... ok, maybe it
> could be...)
>
> cheers
> Brianna
> user:pfctdayelise
>
> PS> I have a suspicion MediaWiki is the most i18sed software out
> there, open source or otherwise. does anyone know of any more complete
> or comprehensively translated software?
>
>
>
> On 02/04/07, Titoxd at Wikimedia <titoxd.wikimedia at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Last I had seen, you could get most of the messages from the local Special:Allmessages page, with the output format set to PHP. Either way, having an extension is always cool. ;)
> >
> > By the way, if anyone is curious about this, but don't know if their language is fully translated, they can check the http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Localization_statistics page, which is almost self-explanatory...
> >
> > Another way to get internationalization of messages is through BugZilla. It isn't as efficient as sending the message file, but it is better than having no file...
> >
> > Спасибо,
> >
> > Titoxd.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Rob Church
> > Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 12:24 AM
> > To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org; mediawiki-i18n at lists.wikimedia.org
> > Subject: [Foundation-l] MediaWiki i18n "call to arms"
> >
> > Hello, bon jour, guten tag, saluton, etc.
> >
> > I can't greet everyone fairly, because I don't speak 200-odd languages.
> >
> > Unfortunately, MediaWiki doesn't, either, and that's what this email's
> > all about.
> >
> > I'm well aware that foundation-l has had a recent, er, "heated
> > discussion" about internationalising the software with respect to
> > starting new wikis, and I'd rather not stir up a beehive with regards
> > to that.
> >
> > We've got some fantastic people working on the internationalisation
> > front for MediaWiki; credit must go to Niklas Laxström for his
> > patient, unending work in this field. I'd also like to mention Rotem
> > Liss, who has been providing updates for the Hebrew language for a
> > long period, now, as well as our volunteers giving us updates in
> > German, Russian, Chinese and Japanese; a big, firm "thanks" is in
> > order.
> >
> > The problem is that we don't have all the bases covered; there are
> > vast numbers of languages not being maintained, and that's a bit of a
> > problem for a software product that's supporting an organisation with
> > international goals in mind.
> >
> > While individual communities can and do perform translations in their
> > MediaWiki namespaces, reliance on this means that each new wiki we
> > launch needs to perform this step, as opposed to having the interface
> > available in their language, from the fore. I believe that not having
> > software that speaks to you in your language is an immense barrier to
> > contribution.
> >
> > I'd therefore like to rally a call to arms; we need translators!
> > Thanks to (again, what an i18n legend this dude is) Nikerabbit's work
> > on Betawiki (http://nike.users.idler.fi/betawiki/) means we will (I
> > hope) soon have a clean extension on the Wikimedia Incubator which
> > will make this stuff easier; it's the same process as editing the
> > MediaWiki namespace now, except what we get out of it allows us to
> > tweak and bundle up the translations into the right form for MediaWiki
> > to use.
> >
> > Of course, if you're able to get to grips with our message file format
> > and you can work a Subversion client, you are more than welcome to
> > update the localisation for your language, or indeed, any other
> > language you feel you can contribute to, and submit patches. If you
> > submit on a consistent and regular basis, then commit access is also
> > forthcoming - we're grateful for people who can speak languages we
> > can't, who can help us out in a major area.
> >
> > Contributions to MediaWiki internationalisation fall under the GNU
> > GPL, which is for all intents and purposes, ideologically similar to
> > the GNU FDL. If you are the maintainer of a language, you will be
> > credited for it, and you *will* have our immense respect and
> > gratitude, as well as that of all our users.
> >
> > There's a guide to getting started with internationalisation at
> > http://nike.users.idler.fi/betawiki/Translating:Intro, and anyone
> > interested in helping out is strongly recommended to contact (look,
> > shall we just make him the official i18n co-ordinator?) Nikerabbit;
> > who can often be found on IRC (#mediawiki, irc.freenode.net).
> >
> > Thank you for your attention, and I apologise for cross-posting,
> >
> >
> > Rob Church
> > MediaWiki developer
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
> >
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> >
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