gettext: Discussions

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1 12.3 Discussions
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1    * NOTE: * This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
1 revised.
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1    Facing this internationalization effort, a few users expressed their
1 concerns.  Some of these doubts are presented and discussed, here.
1 
1    • Smaller groups
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1      Some languages are not spoken by a very large number of people, so
1      people speaking them sometimes consider that there may not be all
1      that much demand such versions of free software packages.
1      Moreover, many people being _into computers_, in some countries,
1      generally seem to prefer English versions of their software.
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1      On the other end, people might enjoy their own language a lot, and
1      be very motivated at providing to themselves the pleasure of having
1      their beloved free software speaking their mother tongue.  They do
1      themselves a personal favor, and do not pay that much attention to
1      the number of people benefiting of their work.
1 
1    • Misinterpretation
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1      Other users are shy to push forward their own language, seeing in
1      this some kind of misplaced propaganda.  Someone thought there must
1      be some users of the language over the networks pestering other
1      people with it.
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1      But any spoken language is worth localization, because there are
1      people behind the language for whom the language is important and
1      dear to their hearts.
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1    • Odd translations
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1      The biggest problem is to find the right translations so that
1      everybody can understand the messages.  Translations are usually a
1      little odd.  Some people get used to English, to the extent they
1      may find translations into their own language “rather pushy,
1      obnoxious and sometimes even hilarious.” As a French speaking man,
1      I have the experience of those instruction manuals for goods, so
1      poorly translated in French in Korea or Taiwan…
1 
1      The fact is that we sometimes have to create a kind of national
1      computer culture, and this is not easy without the collaboration of
1      many people liking their mother tongue.  This is why translations
1      are better achieved by people knowing and loving their own
1      language, and ready to work together at improving the results they
1      obtain.
1 
1    • Dependencies over the GPL or LGPL
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1      Some people wonder if using GNU ‘gettext’ necessarily brings their
1      package under the protective wing of the GNU General Public License
1      or the GNU Lesser General Public License, when they do not want to
1      make their program free, or want other kinds of freedom.  The
1      simplest answer is “normally not”.
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1      The ‘gettext-runtime’ part of GNU ‘gettext’, i.e. the contents of
1      ‘libintl’, is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License.
1      The ‘gettext-tools’ part of GNU ‘gettext’, i.e. the rest of the GNU
1      ‘gettext’ package, is covered by the GNU General Public License.
1 
1      The mere marking of localizable strings in a package, or
1      conditional inclusion of a few lines for initialization, is not
1      really including GPL’ed or LGPL’ed code.  However, since the
1      localization routines in ‘libintl’ are under the LGPL, the LGPL
1      needs to be considered.  It gives the right to distribute the
1      complete unmodified source of ‘libintl’ even with non-free
1      programs.  It also gives the right to use ‘libintl’ as a shared
1      library, even for non-free programs.  But it gives the right to use
1      ‘libintl’ as a static library or to incorporate ‘libintl’ into
1      another library only to free software.
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