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Updating Localization Notes
Tomer, from the Hebrew localization team, highlighted an interesting problem the other day when he emailed the l10n-drivers to point out an issue that has been bothering him and many other localizers. Sometimes, developers will change entities in our locales/en-US directory, but forget to change the localization note above it to reflect the new entity. As Tomer explains,
“This causes the comment to become irrelevant to the text it references. Additionally, if someone then fixes the localization note, localizers won’t be notified on this change, and the comment does not get changed in our translations…As some of us are actually reading such comments before translating, it is important to get it 100% accurate.”
Here is an example that Tomer provides.
<!– LOCALIZATION NOTE (bookmarksSidebarGtkCmd.commandkey): This command
- key should not contain the letters A-F, since these are reserved
- shortcut keys on Linux. –>
<!ENTITY bookmarksGtkCmd.commandkey “o”>You can see that example in our code on MXR here: http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.9.2/source/browser/locales/en-US/chrome/browser/browser.dtd#110
For those readers who may not be seeing what is happening here, notice that the <!– LOCALIZATION NOTE –> is referencing “bookmarksSidebarGtkCmd.commandkey“, but the !ENTITY variable name is actually “bookmarksGtkCmd.commandkey“.
That mismatch in the entity names has made that localization note untrackable by any locaization tools. Unfortunately, localization tools will not understand which comment belongs to bookmarksGtkCmd.commandkey. Furthermore, localizers who use these notes for translations will have to make the educated guess where the comment is pointing. If the note gets updated in the future, it’s likely that localizers will miss it.
Tomer suggested writing a script to look for these mismatches. In the very least, I am hoping this post will spread the awareness to developers to remember to do this. A quick request from l10n community: please maintain localization notes if entities get changed.
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More on Firefox in the Philippines
While we were in the Philippines, Gen and I learned quite a bit about the local Internet landscape there. I thought I would share some more information that I picked up from the trip.
- Population is 92 million, online population is between 20-24 million
- English is one of the official languages of the Philippines. Tagalog is spoken by roughly 22 million people in and around Manila. Cebuano is another language spoken by nearly 20 million Filipinos south of the Luzon region (where Manila is located).
- Depending on what factor we use as a multiplier for our blocklist/AUS ping data, we can estimate that between 3 and 6 million Filipinos are using Firefox. That is a rough guess, but it places Firefox market share at a low-end of 12.5% and a high-end of 30%
- Most people we spoke to browse the Web in English (Firefox US version), but some did suggest that a local version would have appeal.
- Even further debate arose on whether a Tagalog version would have traction, with an audience of bloggers at Wordcamp responding collectively that it might not.
That latter point does not rule out Mozilla shipping a local version of Firefox. But, like every other localization, if we were to ship something localized to the Philippines, it will be because a local community member(s) responds to my call to action and decides to help us complete the body of work.
Obviously, Mozilla Firefox is taking off in the the Philippines, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see if the nascent community stepped forward with an offer to localize Firefox.
Finally, take a look at some stats about Firefox in the Philippines. (All numbers are based on our blocklist data.)
Growth of blocklist pings over one year
The Philippines is #4 on the list
community website
