Think Global, Make Locales!

When users read ’software localized’ they immediately realize that software messages are written in their own language but when developers read the same phrase they should immediately realize that software must fit specific languages rules and character sets.

The difference seems obvious but you can discover very strange behavior when applied to Mozilla platform.

Consider the cyrillic charset, Firefox is translated (ie localized) in Russian but when developers need to interact with underlying operative file system with file paths containing native language characters the life becomes tough.

Recently an user left a post on ViewSourceWith (VSW) extension forum about a bug with cyrillic file names, so I thought the problem was on VSW but after some test I realized the problem is related to Mozilla XPCOM implementation.

The UTF-8 format usage is sometime inconsistent under the hood expecially when must read, write or simply use file names containing non-ASCII characters.

I was very surprised to discover the APIs that run processes don’t work properly especially under the planet-most-used operating system Microsoft Windows.

There are many open bugs on bugzilla (172817, 409796, 408923) but nobody cares so I’ve decided to write myself a working (I hope) component for Microsoft Windows.

The lesson learned is: Localizing software is important but making software locale compliant is important too!

Do you agree?

What is the Firebug extension?

It is a smart and powerful Web Development tool. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. Sure it is mainly a geek-oriented tool
Grab it on AMO -Learn more in documentation

Who is maintaining this extension?

Joe Hewitt was the original creator but it is a whole development team now! Just recently Jan Odvarko decided to manage the localization process relying on BabelZilla. He is very welcome :).

Localize it!

We remember  in the past the question of localizing Firebug was controversial, various coders, though being Chinese or Spanish,  prefer to have it in English, and surely very specific technical terms must definitely not be translated. But we believe that the overall interface messages should be delivered in the user language. It is free choice then for developers to switch to en-US only if they feel like doing it (Quick Locale Switcher extension is very quick and efficient to change your language). Note also that some developers would prefer to stick to en-US interface because of the poor quality of the translation for their language. This is clearly a challenge for BabelZilla translators!

Firebug on BabelZilla: translators required!

There are currently 32 localizations for Firebug on the WTS, but only part of them are ready-to-use and set to “released”.  Some translators are missing in action for a long time, others are too busy to update at the moment… hey we are volunteers after all!

But now we call old and new forces to join efforts :

• If you are a former translator, already registered, and still willing to maintain your translation, please do your best to update within a decent delay. Keep on doing the good job!
• If you are a registered translator but for whatever reason not wishing to maintain your translation, send a PM to an admin to let us know and try if possible to find someone to take over, in your language forum on BabelZilla or by whatever other means. Thanks a lot!
• If you are new to BabelZilla and willing to start translation for your language, just register at the bottom of this page and do it!

After having initiated NVU, the very popular wysiwyg opensource html editor, Daniel Glazman is now releasing his new bird: BlueGriffon

It is a gecko engine propelled xulrunner. A quick look at the source code will tell you it is extensible just like other gecko-engined apps. Mr Glazman already conceived one Diavolo extension for his blazing new editor.

So we can expect one day to host some extensions to translate for this exciting new bird.

The logo is quite impressive, no doubt web designers will grab code fiercely with BlueGriffon claws!

logo for BlueGriffon (TM)