Re: Does YOUR language have an entry in GDM?

[Christian Rose <menthos gnome org>]

sön 2004-02-22 klockan 06.07 skrev Danilo Segan:
> But, the question I've got here is what's the best thing to do.
> 
> Should I add all these to GDM, and ask of users separately to install
> proper locales, at least until they get integrated into GNU libc?
> 
> I think that's the way to go, since it's a choice between "doesn't
> work for anyone", and "works at least for those who install separate
> locales".

I think the reasoning should be the opposite -- if it doesn't work yet
unless you install these corrected locales manually, it shouldn't be
listed in GDM either. The people who can manually install new locales on
their system on their own can probably also set the appropriate
evironment variables themselves to run it, or if necessary add the
appropriate patch themselves to their GDM copy to get the language in
the menu for their users.
But we shouldn't from the gnome.org side put stuff as options in menus
that we know won't work in the general case with many major stock
distributions. Having stuff that doesn't work shown as sensitive options
is just inherently bad UI design.

So I think the general procedure should be:

1) Make sure the locale works, and that it is contributed, accepted and
included upstream in glibc.
2) Produce translations.

and only then:

3) Include the language option in GDM.

The order of 1) and 2) may be reversed, but 3) must IMHO always come at
the end after the other two are done.
That's just my opinion, but I'm strongly convinced that having stuff
that doesn't work listed as options in menus isn't helpful.


Christian