Cc also to mailman-i18n, since this is an i18n issue which will affect other languages we don't yet have.
For example, if someone comes along later and wants to translate into another RTL language, this discussion will be in the archives.
However, I would be keen to document RTL capability in the wiki, once we have it. :)
On 25/04/2006, at 6:13 AM, Barry Warsaw wrote:
Barry, does Mailman support languages written from right to left (RTL) ?
To be honest, I don't know! We'll have to try it and then fix anything we find broken. It might be best to experiment on the 2.2 trunk first, but if the changes are minimal, then we can pull the Hebrew translation into the 2.1 branch.
What would be the best way to test if it exists, Barry?
Do you want Tzipi to complete the whole mailman.po file first, then submit it so it can be tested in the interface?
If so, would you have time to build Mailman with that file, and put it up online, so Tzipi can look at the interface and say if his strings are displaying correctly or not? (We could even do this earlier, with a partly-completed file.)
We don't need to worry about the templates separately, since in trunk they're integrated into the mailman.po file. (Good news for current Mailman translators. ;) "Trunk" is the section of Mailman that will develop into an upcoming version: Mailman 2.2? This nomenclature is easier to remember if you think of all the energy going into growing the trunk of the tree, so it can produce strong new branches [versions]. ;) )
Tzipi, we will need the advice of at least one very experienced open- source Hebrew translator. Have you been in touch with Eli at the Translation Project yet? Please ask him for advice on any issues we may encounter in testing or adapting Mailman for RTL.
This can save a lot of extra work, since I know myself that there are issues specific to each language, which the more experienced translators have already encountered, and about which they can offer very useful advice, and often specific workarounds.
Tzipi, once you have read our Internationalization page and howto (the links I've already sent you) you can certainly start working on the mailman.po file (the interface file). We can't test anything until we have some Hebrew text in Mailman! :)
*** However, there is one small change to the Howto: you need to download the Mailman 2.2, not the current branch (2.1.8). ***
If you have any further questions or problems, after reading our current Internationalization documentation, please ask. :)
from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhóm Việt hóa phần mềm tự do) http://groups-beta.google.com/group/vi-VN