[PD] What about multilingual Pd ?

[derek holzer]

Howdy,

Piotr Majdak wrote:

> BTW, I don't think pd needs international localization in the current 
> development state. There are many another issues (stability, 
> transparency, documentation) which should get higher priority than 
> localization if pd wants to reach for more users.

I agree on the level that if you translate the GUI, and even change the 
names of basic functions (i.e. "message" to "Nachricht"), you will only 
have a lot of very frustrated non-English-speaking users if the docs 
aren't also translated. So I would also vote for improved documentation 
as a focus over localization if PD wants more users.

By this I mean first and foremost more helpful help files (i.e. all 
features clearly documented), then tutorials which are comprehensible to 
non-mathematicians and non-programmers, then high-level abstractions 
which can be easily taken apart and understood and finally translations 
of all this documentation into major languages. At that point, 
localization to support translated documentation could be implemented.

I can see that translating the GUI is a much simpler task than doing 
everything else I just mentioned first, but I'm not convinced that 
localization is the proper first step.

best,
d.

-- 
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
---Oblique Strategy # 172:
"Use `unqualified' people"