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Good news and bad news
Posted on January 13th, 2009 2 commentsFirst the good news. I reformatted my computer and tested WineLocale on a fresh install. It works, with one small problem that was anticipated: you do need to go to the Ubuntu language menu and add the languages you wish you use.
Dan and I had talked about this in email, and it was originally suggested that WineLocale add locale support in this way. It’s probably for the best, because it makes WineLocale feel more “integrated.” To save space and download time, you can just add the language’s IME support or something similar from the expander rather than the numerous translation files.
On the down side, I won’t have enough time to get the beta out this week. Work just dropped on us some news that we have to put on a presentation at a company party this Friday, so all my free time must be routed to that project. Sorry for the let-down.
I will be back to work on WineLocale on Saturday, and with any luck will have an early working beta by Sunday or Monday.
I could use more UI localizations. I believe ^Skeud^ may do a French UI file. I’ve received files for Portuguese (Brasil) and Simplified Chinese from gamer_boy and Jacky Waiss. If you want to see WineLocale in your language, translate this file and email it to me.
Please be sure to change the “language=” line to the name for your language in your language. In other words, if you are sending me a Japanese file, it should say “日本語,” not “Japanese.” Credit yourself by writing whatever name you would like to be called in the “translator=” line.
Thanks in advance to anyone who sends in new languages.
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2 responses to “Good news and bad news”
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Just had a look at the Winelocale code.
As a thought, rather than overriding the FontSubstitutes, which Wine will re-override every time you change locales, why not use the Wine-specific Replacements key described at http://wiki.winehq.org/UsefulRegistryKeys.
Fonts renamed using Replacements appear under both old and new names, as far as the entire rest of the system is concerned.
It has the added benefit of not overriding the user if the user actually has the named fonts available.
That would also let you trim your SystemLink collection back a bit. Another thing that might help trim the SystemLink collection is to note that Wine will apply Microsoft Sans Serif’s SystemLink entries to all other fonts if the existing SystemLink entries for a font are missing or insufficient.
This means that if a user wants to use something other than Kochi Gothic (IPAMonaUIGothic for example) there’s only one place to change, not to or three.
You would still need to use FontSubstitutes to override Wine’s Tahoma with Bitstream Vera Sans though.
With a bit of luck distributions will start including Replacement entries in their own Wine packages, obviating the need for your script to worry about FontLinks and FontSubstitutes, but of course that future’s not here yet.
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Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I’m still in the process of cleaning up the fugly mess of source, but when I get through it I’ll be sure to try out this approach. With a little luck, maybe it will work out OK.
Actually, Wine overwriting this on locale change isn’t such an issue, because WineLocale is intended to be single session. It has to re-apply all fixes each time it shifts languages, which it does each time it is executed.
But you’re right that I shouldn’t monkey with the system trees unless it is really needed. I’ll see what all can safely be moved into Wine-specific.
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The author
Derrick Sobodash is a copy editor and freelance journalist covering culture, history and technology in Beijing, China.
Originally from the Detroit, Michigan area, he has worked at weekly and daily community newspapers as reporter and copy editor in both the US and China, and has covered niche topics for nationally published magazines.
His photographs have been used in Schmapp!! and are often used in NowPublic stories related to Beijing life.
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