Re: Fwd: Re: Localized Pages

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

Francisco V. Romera wrote:

> 	I think that the firts time you connect this page it could show a
> dropdown-box with all languages and when you select it, it save it in a
> cookie or similar to the next time, you don't have to choose any language and
> directly shows the page in your preferent language.
>
> 	You think it's possible???

I think having to choose something before I visit the page the first 
time and want quick access to information is unnecessary -- now when we 
have content-negotiation (language preference settings in browsers) why 
not use this in a clever way (use the "preferred language" in the 
browser as the default language version of the page to be displayed to 
the user)?

But I agree that there should, in addition to the "preferred language" 
being the default, be a language selection method that can override the 
language being displayed as default and store this in a cookie. But this 
language selection could be presented as a part of the page, not 
something that you *have* to choose before you get to the information.

So if a user goes to www.gnome.org (and has a Spanish browser with a 
Spanish language setting) and he's chocked to find the page in Spanish 
he only has to select "English" to get what he wants.

And another user who has the same browser settings but who prefers 
information in Spanish, will find the default setting the most 
comfortable, no manual intervention necessary.

And thirdly, a user who prefers Spanish but has another language setting 
in his browser (maybe travelling?) will find the page being displayed in 
that particular language, but will probably find the language setting 
and manage to change it to "Espaņol".

I think this dual strategy (language-negotiation as the default, but 
overridable) solves all the scenarios above rather well. Comments?


Christian