[gui-dev] Sorted list of languages.

[Marcin Okraszewski]

Hi,
It is not at the wish list, but there wasn't any order in the list of
languages. I've sorted the list of languages by display name.
Unfortunately languages which do not start with latin letter are at the
end of list. But I think it is still better than totally unsorted list.
English is always at first position.

The list is displayed in wizard configuration at first start up and in
language menu.

Best regards,
Marcin

[Ryan Keppel]

I assume the non-ASCII languages are sorted by UNICODE value? That should be
fine for the vast majority of the market. If you think sixteen bit values are
difficult, wait until you see the supplemental values (above 0xFFFF). Note to
creators of Java++: Make the char an unsigned thirty-two bit value and leave
room for most of the galaxy's natural languages.

------ Original Message ------
Received: Thu, 19 May 2005 01:36:07 PM PDT
From: Marcin Okraszewski <***@o2.pl>
To: ***@gui.limewire.orgCc:
Subject: [gui-dev] Sorted list of languages.

Post by Marcin Okraszewski
Hi,
It is not at the wish list, but there wasn't any order in the list of
languages. I've sorted the list of languages by display name.
Unfortunately languages which do not start with latin letter are at the
end of list. But I think it is still better than totally unsorted list.
English is always at first position.
The list is displayed in wizard configuration at first start up and in
language menu.
Best regards,
Marcin
---------------------------------------------
Attachment: LanguageInfo.java.patch
MIME Type: text/plain
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-From Ryan.

[Philippe Verdy]

Post by Ryan Keppel
I assume the non-ASCII languages are sorted by UNICODE value? That should be
fine for the vast majority of the market.

See the translate page (http://www.limewire.org/translate.shtml), and you'll
see that languages are listed by category for now, according to the charset
they need (or support on various platforms), and then sorted alphabetically
in each group. This is more or less by Unicode value, but for practical
reason, it is easier to find this way, as this more or less corresponds to
the default UCA order.

The language selector that will be implemented however will allow selecting
languages by continent/region/country because many people don't know the
name of their own script.

Post by Ryan Keppel
If you think sixteen bit values are difficult,

They are not difficult. They are the standard for the Java *native* char
datatype, which is NOT really a character but simply an unsigned 16bit
integer. In Java, the correct model for characters is the "Char" class,
which is already ready for handling supplementary planes.

Post by Ryan Keppel
wait until you see the supplemental values (above 0xFFFF). Note to
creators of Java++

Look into Java 1.4.1 and now 1.5. They are already supported.

Post by Ryan Keppel
Make the char an unsigned thirty-two bit value and leave
room for most of the galaxy's natural languages.

This was not needed in Java: the correct level to handle international text
is the full TEXT level, i.e. "String" instances, not "Char" instances. They
are immutable so their underlying encoding as arrays of characters or code
units does not matter. The standard Java "String" class is already ready to
handle characters in supplementary planes.

[Philippe Verdy]

I see that you use the "compareTo()" function to sort the language names.
But it performs lexicographical ordering (incorrect to sort accents, for
example the localized name of Icelandic that starts with a I with accute,
and is then listed at end of Latin languages).

If you want to see an already existing sort, you can look at the sort I did
for the "CountPercent" subproject (in the library module, in
/lib/messages/com/limegroup/gnutella/i18n/CountPercent.java)
It takes into account the language group, and this is this code that
currently generates the "translate.shtml" page on the limewire.org site.

I am in fact working on a resource file that will map all continental
regions to countries, and all countries to their spoken languages (or other
prefered default languages if one translation is still missing). Also I
prepare a few bitmaps to select continental areas instead of using
comboboxes or lists. This will allow listing all countries at the same time
in that region.

Once I have finished that, I will discuss of the various ways to select
prefered locales.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marcin Okraszewski" <***@o2.pl>
To: <***@gui.limewire.org>
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 12:50 AM
Subject: [gui-dev] Sorted list of languages.

Post by Marcin Okraszewski
Hi,
It is not at the wish list, but there wasn't any order in the list of
languages. I've sorted the list of languages by display name.
Unfortunately languages which do not start with latin letter are at the
end of list. But I think it is still better than totally unsorted list.
English is always at first position.
The list is displayed in wizard configuration at first start up and in
language menu.
Best regards,
Marcin