From owner-freebsd-current  Thu Oct 19  1:32:39 2000
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Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 03:32:53 -0500
From: "Michael C . Wu" <keichii@iteration.net>
To: i18n@freebsd.org
Cc: current@freebsd.org
Subject: I18N Progress, Plans, and Proposals
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Reply-To: "Michael C . Wu" <keichii@peorth.iteration.net>
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At the BSDCon I18N BOF, we discussed several things that could/should
happen with the future of I18N(internationalization) in FreeBSD.
We would like some inputs and comments regarding the following:

* Moving to message catalogue style error messages for the kernel and
  userland.  (AIX style)  Each time the system outputs an error
  either from the kernel or userland, the error message is a
  formatted alphanumerica string mapped to verbose error messages.
  The error messages can be mapped to various languages.
  The advantages are :
    A. Easy bug reporting by users. (e.g. "I have error 2398423")
    B. I18N error messages

  The main disadvantage is that it will be a long term work
  to maintain it and to keep error messages updated.

1. The future of sysinstall (or whatever should replace it)
   The future installer/management utility should be
   able to handle arbitrary character sets.
   In other words, it should be able to display Chinese/Japanese/etc.
   with user selection.  To be discussed.

2. Needing a graphics console to display various character sets.
   There should be a kernel or loader option to start
   a graphics console by default.

3. Itojun mentioned that the CITRUS Japanese people will be able
   to import the wchar* and libxpg4 changes soon.

4. ports/<language>/auto-l10n  Auto-localization port
   It will be like ports/x11/gnome and depend on all necessary
   ports.  The user will be able to choose what kind of applications
   s/he requires, like the old Apache ports.

5. Produce /usr/share/skel/<language> that allow
   admin to specify the default language for the users
   login.conf bla bla bla

6.  All language development groups should coordinate efforts
    in order to not reinvent wheels.  Suggest using i18n@freebsd.org

7. Documentation should have an automatic implementation of notifying
   various language documentation groups to update changes.
   This allows for quick changes to translated efforts.

8. waiting for ICONV from Konstantine

I am willing to coordinate these things, but I would like
some help. ;)

Thanks,

Michael

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