268783 - Make Firefox multi-language

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Manfred Schubert]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; de-DE; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; de-DE; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0

Include core languages like English, French, German, and Japanese all into
Firefox at the same time. This is the standard on Mac OS X applications. Please
at least always include English with the localized versions. I often switch
between English and German. I don't even know how to manually add English to the
browser because the <language>.lproj folders appear to be empty except for an
InfoPlist.strings file that doesn't include much anything.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[OstGote!]

I would say this is severity "enhancement".

Comment 2

[Ben Fowler]

I am not sure that Firefox uses .lproj packages.

You might find many people would have French, Italian, German and Spanish
as their first tier langauges.

Though this is not a dup, the answers given in Bug 266856 probably apply:
the Mozilla team only guarantee localisation for release builds.

I still think that if it were easier to build localised versions (Bug 201853),
or the process were better documented, then more people would contribute 
to localised versions. Having said that the current system does make it
easy for one of your requests to to be met: it is more or less certain
that each localised build will have an English counterpart.

Arguably this is more than enhancement, internationalisation is one of
Mozilla's core activities.

Comment 3

[Manfred Schubert]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Though this is not a dup, the answers given in Bug 266856 probably apply:
> the Mozilla team only guarantee localisation for release builds.

I think you misunderstood. Firefox 1.0 *is* available in German and many other
languages. I downloaded it in German.

The problem is that the program is single language only. The German language I
downloaded is German only. On Mac OS X applications are multi-language by
default. If you switch the language of the operating system and launch the same
program again it has switched tha language as well. This is very useful. In the
south of the USA for example I assume many families or workplaces have people
who prefer either English or Spanish. They can have different accounts on the
same computer and when they launch the applications it's in their language. Or
if you are developing software you just quickly switch languages and can test
for those languages. You also need to offer only one download link and
world-wide everybody has the right version. It's too handy.

I can't even manually add English to Firefox because it doesn't use
<language>.lrpoj folders.

So please consider adding at least English and <local language> together in
Firefox. Better would be if the most important languages would be all included.

Comment 4

[Ben Fowler]

I certainly was not intending to contradict anything in your latest comment, nor
do I dispute anything in it now.

Internationalisation/localisation, though important, is a bit of a closed book
except to people who have a real need for it, in the sense that they could
not use Firefox without; indeed, only the German localisation project seems to
be particularly effective.

If localisation were easier or more effective then more people would do it.

Apart from en-GB, I am sure that Welsh, Scottish and even Geordie and Yorkshire
dialect versions would appear if these were easy to produce and maintain.

If there were a technique or recipe for creating .lproj files from the
Firefox localised builds, incorporating exisiting localisations, I would
use it.

See http://www.omnigroup.com/ftp/pub/localization/localization.html 
http://www.sticksoftware.com/software/LocalizationTips.html
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/SystemOverview/International/chapter_10_section_2.html

Perhaps it might be easier to do this kind of operation on Camino, and
move the skills and techniques to Firefox?

If you believe that the German-localised Mac version of Firefox is lacking
the means to switch itself to English (on request, or at start-up according
to a user preference), then you might want to open this as separate bug
on that product.

Comment 5

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Ben Fowler: Your comments are incorrect and inane. (And by the way, Firefox 1.0
now supports the --enable-ui-locale=ab-CD build option). Firefox 1.0 released
simultaneously in 15 languages, and we plan to have over 30 within a few months.

We made a strategic decision that multi-language installs were not a good idea
by default (although distributors might have the option to install multiple
languages by default). Each language takes between 80k and 300k in download
weight, and adding 4-8MB to the download weight of a package is prohibitive.

If you want multiple languages, install the English version and then add
language packs as extensions, you can find them at
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/1.0/win32/xpi/
(Don't be put off by the "win32" in that URL, langpacks are cross-platform.)

Then you will also need to install the locale-switcher extension from
https://update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&id=356&vid=1103

I've heard some reports that the locale-switcher doesn't work on mac, but I
don't have a mac so I can't verify that. You can manually change the
general.useragent.locale pref to switch languages if the extension doesn't work.

Comment 6

[Manfred Schubert]

(In reply to comment #5)
> I've heard some reports that the locale-switcher doesn't work on mac, but I
> don't have a mac so I can't verify that.

So then why do you resolve works for me?

On Mac language switching happens AUTOMATICALLY. You don't have to install some
obscure language switcher extension or set preferences for individual
applications. IT JUST WORKS.

Also adding 7 core language to the default download - if each language takes
about 30 kB - only add 210 kB to the download, but takes care of > 90% of the
users. Worth for me in my opinion.

Anyway, if you are not interested in being a proper Mac application then resolve
this "wont be fixed". But don't resolve anything "works for me" that is clearly
broken on Mac just because you use Windows only.

Comment 7

[Benjamin Smedberg]

If you install langpacks and set the pref "intl.locale.matchOS" to true (using
about:config), then the UI should match the mac system locale (AUTOMATICALLY).

The core languages are the largest (300k range) because they provide help
screenshot images. I agree that we should provide a better automatic way to get
langpacks, that's on my todo list for firefox 1.1

And whether the locale-switching extension works on mac doesn't affect the
resolution of this bug. It's an extension.

Comment 8

[Jo Hermans]

*** Bug 255864 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***