Sunday thought: Discarding localizations from extensions

XUL is so flexible that creating localized extensions is incredible easy, adding new languages is simple and the developer effort is very low.

So adding locales is technically trivial but having locales updated can have a dramatic impact on release process.

Everything is based on voluntary contribution and this is simply awesome but very often localizers stop translation without tell anything, other translators can’t respect deadlines, this is voluntary activity so if they can’t do it means simply they can’t do!

I’m very sad but I’ve decided to drop localizations inclusion from my extensions I leave only my mother tongue and obviously English.

Epic fails

A short list of attempts I’ve done to obtain completed locales but without success

• Contacting localizers asking to complete localization without receiving reply (bad citizens???)
• Searching other people to continue translations
• Asking translations for less than ten strings per release (including accesskeys and key)
• Setting long deadlines (two/three weeks) discarding periods closer to holidays (summer/winter)

Technical workarounds

I know there are many ways to have an incomplete locale using en-US for missing strings, (read Firebug lesson) but I really dislike mixed locales and I’m a zero-or-one man so complete locales go inside XPI, incomplete locales not bundled!

I surrender

So finally I’ve decided to stop locales inclusion, I will continue to write code compliant with locale rules (eg no hard coded strings) because it’s easy and really useful.

Komodo maintenant parle Français (Komodo now speaks French)

The Babelzilla Team is proud to present the (unofficial) Komodo French localization.

Komodo 5.1 has been released, it contains many cool features and the Babelzilla guys have completed the FIRST localization, the first one.

You can find further details at French Mozilla blog and the installation instructions at BabelWiki

A special thanks goes to Goofy that coordinated the L10N work.

Thanks guys, you made the world a better place without linguistic barrier.

Komodo French Localization coming soon

This morning I’ve found a couple of emails coming from my BabelZilla forum subscriptions, after reading them I went to WTS homepage where I saw the image shown below.

Fantastic! The French localization is completed, 2016 strings translated!

When I asked to BabelZilla guys to localize Komodo I could not imagine they did it so quickly.

Many activities must be coordinated with ActiveState team

• Remove all hardcoded strings (amazingly new code continues to be written with hard-coded strings!!! 😯 😕 )
• Establish a time deadline to froze new strings added to trunks (this can drastically simplify localization cycle)
• Lang Pack release process and better integration with code development lifecycle

But be calm dafi 😛 … one step at a time

I want to say thanks to Goofy, the BabelZilla Super Mod, and Pedro the Italian localizer that helped me from the beginning, they helped me to “extract” hard-coded strings and prepare patches to submit.
A big “thank you” goes to all localizers (especially the French community) for dedicating time and passion to this work.

Technically speaking an installable French lang pack is already ready for KomodoEdit v5.0.2, French team are completing the quality test and everybody can help them.

Who want to see Komodo in French can register on Babelzilla and read more at Komodo Lang Pack forum thread…

… and Goofy has already localized in French my extension TabSwitcher

Alea iacta est: OpenKomodo localized

Alea iacta est the first OpenKomodo lang pack has landed.

I’ve already spoken about KomodoEdit localization and now the french Babelzilla team has terminated the first version, the official announcement has posted at Mozilla Europe site.

I’m very happy, I’ve developed macros to simplify lang pack testing and created a simple webapp to convert babelzilla locale tarballs to installable xpi langpacks.

Maybe ActiveState guys hate me because the translation idea started from me, but I believe localized (and open) softwares are simpler to use in schools, poor information environments and any low profile educational eco-systems.

The italian lang pack is coming soon, I will be very proud to use KomodoEdit in my mother tongue.

I hope other localizations can arrive very soon

KomodoEdit localization

I’ve asked to babelzilla community if they are interested to translating KomodoEdit and immediately they reply to me that this is possible.

So I’ve posted into Komodo forum to understand if ActiveState is interested, too.

Well, all is ready and I’m glad to have started this process.

I don’t know what this experiment will produce but I’m happy to see collaborations between so different communities.

I hope to see very soon the first KomodoEdit in non english language 😛