gettext: Discussions
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1 12.3 Discussions
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1
1 * NOTE: * This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
1 revised.
1
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
1
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.
1
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
1
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.
1
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.
1
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
1
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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