Re: RTL support in Gnome

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Wed, 2007-01-17 at 10:17 +0200, Yair Hershkovitz wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> > >   1) I want to start a mailing list for RTL support discussions
> > > ( gnome-rtl gnome org ???)
> > 
> > I don't think it's quite necessary.  One reason is that only people
> > directly interested in RTL support will be there, while most of the time
> > one wants comment from main developers of modules or other "interested"
> > hackers.  You don't get it there.
> > 
> 
> There are some issues with RTL supports that needs to be discussed. For
> example: Should window decorations switch sides when in RTL? Should
> desktop icons be aligned to the right in RTL (bug #397395)?
> 
> When such a list exists, developers would also be able to use it to
> get help on how to support RTL in their applications.
> 
> We can't leave the decisions of how RTL support should work to module
> developers and maintainers. I do think that GNOME should have an RTL
> group.

It seems to me that there are lots of internationalization
issues that developers might need to discuss with people
who are familiar with all the issues, and that RTL issues
are just a subset of those issues.  I'm afraid that an RTL
list would be too silent too often, and thus run the risk
of losing subscribers.

Having lots of lists for very specific things can create
confusion.  People can't remember that many lists, and
wading through a list of hundreds of mailing lists just
isn't fun.

Perhaps we should have separate lists for i18n and l10n.
The i18n list would be for discussing developer issues
relating to i18n (including RTL issues), while the l10n
list would be for translators to discuss whatever it is
that translators like to discuss.

Unfortunately, gnome-i18n has already become the de facto
list for l10n, so naming a new i18n list would be tricky.

--
Shaun