Re: language selection in CSS validator

On Nov 23, 2006, at 20:39 , Richard Ishida wrote:
> I strongly recommend this, since people need to find out quickly  
> that they
> can change language and how to do it.

OK, there seems to be a wide agreement on this solution. Adopted.

I'll remove the languages selection page. We'll keep the list of  
languages, with names of translators.

>
> I would change your code as follows:
>
> PROPOSED (for English page)
> <ul id="lang_choice">
> 	<li title="French"><a href="..." lang="fr"
> xml:lang="fr">Francais</a></li>
> 	<li title="Italian"><a href="..." lang="it"
> xml:lang="it">Italiano</a></li>
>  ...
> 	</ul>

OK (and I agree with the additional suggestions made by David too,  
thank you!)


> Of course, the title attributes would need to be translated to the  
> language
> of the current page.

Right. Which will just add up to my current nightmare of getting  
translations done, but at least it won't have to be done very often  
(just when we add a new language)

> Note that I suggest changing the extension zh-cn to zh-hans - not  
> essential.
> Obviously this is much easier if you are using typemap rather than
> multiviews content negotiation.
>
> The zh-hans in the language attributes should probably stay, however.

I'll look into that. Not very easy or pleasant to do with CVS, I'm  
afraid.

> How about adding a line below the language links saying "Always  
> view in this
> language" and make it a link pointing to the article?

I'd rather be conservative with screen real estate, especially at the  
top of the page. The link would be a duplicate since there would be a  
link to the language specific resource already anyway.

> By the way, note that I'm seriously wondering whether to disable  
> content
> negotiation for the i18n site.  This is because we have no idea how  
> good the
> translations are, and have some evidence to suggest that they are  
> not great,
> and we'd rather ensure that people see them only as non-authoritative
> alternatives.  Do you check the quality of your translations?  If  
> not, you
> really should add a disclaimer in a very visible place to say that  
> this is a
> volunteer translation, that there may be errors, and where to find the
> original.

I am trying to get a review of the translations done before releasing  
them, but it is not systematic. The disclaimer you suggest, while  
appropriate for a translated technical report, would be a little more  
difficult to put everywhere on an online tool like the validators.

Thanks for all your suggestions, I'll start implementing them right  
away, and will probably contact you again if any new question arises.

-- 
olivier

Received on Friday, 24 November 2006 01:52:25 UTC