About box redesign

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

There came a suggestion to the gnome-i18n mailing list that the
"standard" about box in programs probably needs a redesign.

The initial problem that sparked the discussion was that there is
absolutely no info in the programs (read: about box) about who
translated the programs into the language the user uses (the current
locale).
This information is often important because there can be errors in
translations and the user should somehow be able to get in contact with
the translator (or his language translation team).
This is a huge problem today - no end user knows "what idiot" translated
the program and there is virtually no feedback. Feedback is important.
If there is no way for the end user to comment on the translations,
translation errors and bugs can be left unfixed for a year or more.
Also, of course there should be some credit for the translator.
Translators are often very anonymous, even though they create a lot of
the end user localized experience.

This sparked another discussion. Who should be given credit? Everyone?
One program maintainer (Chema Celorio) expressed the opinion that he
wanted a way to give all contributors credit, including all past
contributors, all past translators for all languages, and suggested that
there could be some auto-scrolling about box like that in gnome-core
that lists _all_ contributors.
Karl Eichwalder and I made the point that the list of all past
translators for all languages alone could become quite big and was not a
solution for the problem because the end user was probably just
interested in the translator info for *his* particular language/locale.

The refined suggestion was that there should be different views - one
"ordinary" about box view with this information:

------------------------------
| Authors :                  |
|   Joe1 <joe1 server com>   |
|   Joe2 <joe2 server com>   |
|                            |
| Documentation by :         |     [Optional]
|   Mike <mike mike com>     |
|                            |
| Artwork by :               |     [Optional]
|   Alex <alex alex com>     |
|                            |
| Based on X app by :        |     [Optional]
|   Juan <juan juan com>     |
|                            |
| Tranlsated to $LOCALE by:  |
|   Krwsr <krwsr krwsr com xx> | 
|                            |
|  [Full Contributors List]  | ( A button that pops up a scrolling
------------------------------  list with minor contributors & the 
                                full list of translators)
and that "full contributors list" button that popups another view with
all contributors to the program; people with patches, past translators,
documentation writers, you name it.

At this point, we had agreed on that this split view was probably the
best design, but the implementation was another issue. For example, I'm
suggesting instead of a button a tabbed about box with one default view
like that above and one "All contributors" tab. I like tabs better than
buttons that popup new views.

We also agreed that we were finished with our proposal and we'd better
bring it to gnome-gui-list to "pixelize" the design. Chema Celorio gave
a hint that he would be willing to make it a reality once there was some
agreement on the layout.

So what do you all think? Do you like tabs? Do you like auto-scrolling
information? Suggestions? Comments?


Christian



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Christian Rose
http://www.menthos.com                    	    menthos menthos com
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