[Foundation-l] [Wikitech-l] Implementing the Babel extension

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
That is not here and now.  At this moment we are considering the
implementation of the Babel extension, we are not considering something we
did not do.

When you think that it is easy to localise templates, think again. There are
many hard issues that have to be solved in this way. To name a few:

   - Localising templates means fixating them in a specific way
   - Templates are used in languages and many scripts. The text can be in
   two directions.
   - Templates are used for "info boxes", why not have the content localised
   as well
   - ..

With the Babel extension we have functionality that is of use here and now
and on all our projects. If there is a wish to morph this into something
else, please understand what this extension does first. Please understand
that is ties in with other functionality and please understand that
consequently It is not as *easy* as it seams...

Thanks,
       GerardM

On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 3:55 PM, Simetrical
<Simetrical+wikilist at gmail.com<Simetrical%2Bwikilist at gmail.com>>
wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 1:30 AM, Gerard Meijssen
> <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The number and the
> > distribution of localisations of the extension is better ensured by
> having
> > an extension.
>
> Possibly, yes, but I don't think such a special-purpose extension is
> the right way to do this.  There are really only three benefits I see
> here:
>
> 1) Extensions can use Betawiki for localization.
>
> 2) Extensions can be easily installed and maintained on all Wikimedia
> projects at once.
>
> 3) Extensions can be easily installed by third parties.
>
> Now, these are real benefits.  But there's no reason to restrict them
> only to Babel.  What if you achieved the following instead:
>
> 1) Collections of templates can use Betawiki for localization.
>
> 2) Collections of templates can be easily installed and maintained on
> all Wikimedia projects at once.
>
> 3) Collections of templates can be easily installed by third parties.
>
> This would have been as easy to do as writing the Babel extension, I
> suspect, and a lot more useful.
>
> > One of the reasons for the extension is NOT to have to maintain a long
> list
> > of templates. Templates are nice for local usage. When they are to be
> used
> > on all our wikis they are a pest. When they are also to be used by
> projects
> > outside of the WMF they are clearly inferior.
> >
> > Templates that are to be used on multiple projects suck big time.
>
> And this is the problem that should have been addressed to begin with.
>  You should not write software to solve a narrow problem when you
> could solve a much bigger problem just as easily.
>
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