LanguagePackVsSupport

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Comment: initial braindump from the first BoF
← Revision 2 as of 2005-10-31 18:29:58 → ⇥
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Editor: 187_220_103_66-WIFI_HOTSPOTS
Comment: some more notes
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 * add a separate l10n CD and put all the translation-related packages on it. -> this is not appealing, and it contradicts our plan to reduce the number of CDs  * add a separate l10n CD and put all the translation-related packages on it. -> this is not appealing, and it contradicts our plan to reduce the number of CDs; however, we might generate the CD and offer it for download only, which would at least enable users with low/no bandwidth to get the packages in some way (freedom toaster, burn CD by a friend, etc.)
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TODO for next BoF:
 * identify use cases and check the options against them
 * talk with Matt/Colin about the possiblitly of generating a second CD (image, seed)

Summary

As of Ubuntu 5.10, language-specific add-ons fall into two categories. language-pack-*, which provides gettext translation data, and language-support-*, which provides "everything else" (including non-gettext translation data). We should consider whether we can make this distinction more meaningful, perhaps limiting language-support-* to non-translation data (e.g., authoring packages for spell checking, thesauruses, etc.)

Rationale

Use cases

Scope

Design

Implementation

Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

BoF agenda and discussion

Intended meaning of the packages:

  • language pack = translations
  • lanugage support = support packages (spell checkers, etc.)
  • This is reflected in the current language pack selector (translations and input aids)

Problems:

  • Current -support packages contain localisation as well, like firefox language packs. There are also in-between things, like OpenOffice help files.

  • We have pretty good coverage right now on the install CD
  • No language packs on the live CDs for amd64 and i386 currently, because of space constraints. This will only get worse if language packs grow.

  • In a e. g. a German installation, the user will get a German desktop by default, but won't have a German translation for Firefox and OpenOffice.org.

Openoffice and Firefox are NOT localised by default, because their l10n packages are dependencies of the language-support packages, and not of the language-pack packages. We currently cannot do the latter because of the sizes of the OOo/moz locale packages.

The combination of OO.o l10n+ffox l10n is in the magnitude of 5 MB; OO.o help is in the magnitude of 10 MB; there is no way we could put help files onto the primary CD.- This means that if you don't have network, you're pretty much screwed.

Options:

  • add a separate l10n CD and put all the translation-related packages on it. -> this is not appealing, and it contradicts our plan to reduce the number of CDs; however, we might generate the CD and offer it for download only, which would at least enable users with low/no bandwidth to get the packages in some way (freedom toaster, burn CD by a friend, etc.)

  • make hundreds of standard CDs, one for each supported language -> that will make all mirrors run away screaming, and introduces a testing problem

  • gain more space by using better compression (7zip?) of packages -> won't gain much space -- maybe the firefox/openoffice translation formats can be streamlined/be made more compressible upstream

  • if the user did not agree to install the support package, automatically start the language selector, which points out that translation support is incomplete, and offers to complete it. However, this breaks with the principle of not asking any questions at the first login.

  • Similar to the previous option: since having questions after the first login is not desirable, improve the question in the installer: point out that language support includes translations and help files for Firefox and OpenOffice, and also point out how to add this support later.

  • Select them (dpkg --set-selections-ish), and have them installed on the first upgrade
  • My local CD vendor sells 99 minute CDs, which can contain a few more packages, but have a higher error rate and are not as well supported on a lot of CD players

  • Switch to Gnome Office instead of OpenOffice (MUCH smaller localisation files, much faster, etc.) -> see FirstAgainstTheWall BoF

  • Ship the DVDs in addition to the CDs

TODO for next BoF:

  • identify use cases and check the options against them
  • talk with Matt/Colin about the possiblitly of generating a second CD (image, seed)

LanguagePackVsSupport (last edited 2008-08-06 16:19:59 by localhost)