Re: [Columba-devel] [Question] Possible uselessness of i18n support.

[Hrk <hr...@us...>]

Timo:
 >The Resourceloader must then be adjusted to read any jar in
 >that directory when searching for a i18n-string. I think that
 >would be the easiest way to do it. Would you like to do it?

This could apply to plugins too, but I still haven't guessed how are 
plugins handled by columba or what kind of plugins could be useful to 
columba. :)

If your last sentence meant "Would you like to adjust the 
Resourceloader?"... I still don't know columba code or organization. :)
I hope not to sound bad, but some comments in the code would help a lot :P
Even a global documentation file with the idea behind each module and 
package would be a good starting point for contributors to start. :-)

When I understand columba's basics, it'll be likely that I'll write some 
code for it: I have been looking for a good open source email client for 
one year, because I wanted it to be cool, working good and I wanted to be 
able to change/adapt it to my needs. :-)

My hopes were to find a client written in C (faster, smaller, easier for me 
to code and for my old PC to run) but when I saw columba's screenshots I 
fell in love. :-)

[Themes]
 >To get things clear: restart Columba - not reboot your computer?

Yes, excuse me. I meant a restart of columba. :-)
The themes seem to apply the very moment I choose "OK". This could make 
languages/locales changable at runtime too... who knows?
[I mean: if the GUI changes, why shouldn't the GUI strings change too?]

 >If you want to change the locale used you have to start it with
 >"java -Duser.language="fi" -Duser.country="FI" -jar columba.jar"

This brings another problem: I am sure Linux users either aren't scared to 
add commandline options to columba's launcher, or have a friend who isn't 
scared to (and is the guy who compiled their kernels :P).
I don't know about Mac users, but surely Windows users won't like this. I 
can do it effortlessly, but I don't want to do it :-P [lazyyyyyyy]

Could it be possible to save the desired locale option in the option .xml 
files, and then read it on program launch?
What would be needed, then, is only a way to load the list of every 
available locale and display it in a drop down menu for the users to choose.

If there's "-Duser.country", it is used. If there isn't one, options are 
read and used.

How is it possible to know the available transpations which are already 
inside columba.jar?

If there is no way to know it, we could simply put Jari's translations and 
your DE translation in two separate langpack_fi_FI.jar and 
langpack_de_DE.jar file, so EVERY translation lies in an external .jar file 
and the load routine can be "easy".

You experts shed light upon this matter. :-)

Jari:
 >Here is the problem which you noted; how average user can add her 
language support?

We're obviously talking about win32 users and maybe MacOS users, 'cause I 
don't think Linux users would have this problem. Correct me if I am wrong, 
obviously.

I do not think downloading a file from the internet, retrieving it from the 
HD, extracting its contents to columba directory is a difficult task, but 
probably my uncle wouldn't be able to do it.

I have seen that Miranda users easily download and install plugins (they 
only need to copy the files to the \plugin\ directory) so I am not very 
pessimistic about this, though.

 >Personally I'd rip netbeans' (.org) update software (and possibly convert
 >it to smtp-ish) and verify files with GPG / md5 and install them 
automagickly.

I don't like this approach very much for these reasons:
1) I do not like things to happen without my clicked approval
2) I do not necessarily wish to download a finnish langpack or an Istant 
Messaging plugin ;-)

We could make a Java (so crossplatform) "installer" which behaves in the 
following ways:
-) connects to a special and "secret" page 
(http://columba.sf.net/plugins/data.xml)
-) retrieves a list of available plugins and their informations (version, 
last modify date, size...) (this explains why data.xml and not data.html)
-) Shows to the user a list of available cathegories and files (languages: 
italian v1.0, finnish v1.2, german v0.9; encryption: PGP x.xx; ...)
-) If the user selects some files, they are downloaded and automatically 
put in the right folder, thus avoiding every complication to the user, who 
had the option to choose them.

I do not know how to do such a thing, though. I do not know how to make a 
direct connection to a .xml page neither a proxied connection to an .xml page.
I do not know many other things, but I think there are good Java APIs to be 
found. :-)

What do you think about this installer?
Would it be able to correctly locate columba's directory, in order to 
install the files in the right place?
Otherwise it could be an internal module with a menu item somewhere.

Me:
 >>Just curious. :-)

Jari:
 >aol. =)

I do not know this acronym, what does it stand for?

Bye,

	Hrk
-- 
Hrk (Luca Santarelli)
email: hr...@us...
(Miranda) ICQ UIN: 12418292
I can be found toying around:
http://miranda-icq.sourceforge.net/ Miranda IM, ICQ/MSN clone
http://columba.sourceforge.net/ Columba EMailClient