Internationalization and Localization
Intro
Definition of both i18n and L10n on wikipedia
Translatable strings are referred to as "messages".
Internationalization
Programmers must take great care that all user-visible strings are translatable. To meet this goal:
- Messages must be complete phrases. For example:
Please click here
must be a single message, even if "here" is the only linked text. TODO: include example of message with a link
Points of Style
This content should eventually end up in a style guide.
- Example messages describing form buttons:
Click "Submit" to submit this form or "Cancel" to abort and return to the main menu.
Localization
We are now using Translatewiki.net.
Translatewiki.net
- All localization must be done via Translatewiki.net.
- They have their own clone of our head repository from sf.net, which should be checked out to the 1.7.x branch.
- Ask for help on the #mediawiki-i18n IRC channel on irc.freenode.net for
- any issues with Translatewiki.net
- commit requests (ie: will you please commit messages for Mifos?)
- pull requests (ie: will you please pull the latest Mifos changes?)