Help! Localization, download and size
By glazou on Wednesday 1 June 2011, 15:29 - Mozilla - Permalink
Given the fact I can't, for time, network and technical reasons, release 13 localized versions of BlueGriffon, I have about two options here and would like to read what you think is the best:
- one single package with the 13 locales.
Pros: selecting a locale is 3 clicks away through the Preferences panel.
Cons: size of the package, user ends up with useless locales.
- one single package with only en-US and the 12 other locales (langpack, dictionnary if available) can be downloaded independently.
Pros: much smaller downloads.
Cons: user has to save 2 XPIs (langpack, dictionnary) on local disk, install them manually, then switch locale through Preferences
What do you think?
Comments
Wouldn't it be possible to download the langpack from the server on the first launch, if needed?
Could the language XPI be downloadable from Blue Griffon itself ?
With a nice spash screen in the 13 languages on first boot to select which packs to download/install ?
Depends on how much smaller the downloads are without the locales. As a rule of thumb I’d say always include the locales in the package, and try to automagically use the “right” locale depending on the operating system’s locale (while providing an option to override this detection). Anything else means a poor user experience for users who don’t also read English and will have trouble understanding (let alone performing) the instructions for installing a locale. So unless the locales make the package twice as big or more, I’d keep them bundled with the default download.
You can do like Songbird : download of the langpack on the first run, ability to change locale with automatic download on the file -> language :
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/364419/temp...
@fvsch: eeeeeh, that could be a good strategy, yes
@Auba, @FremyCompany: if the above does not work, i'll try that one
Holy cow!!! That's trivial to do!!!
Each langpack xpi is about 300Kio, which is not so much... (as it's possible, with latest xulrunner engine to keep it compressed)
solution #1 seems really acceptable (the solution used by the RPM)
also note the two necessary xpi can be bundled in one multi-xpi (with a <em:type>32</em:type> thingy) that install in one pass for convenience
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mu...
Answer 1!!!!
#1 and #2...
- a en-US (only) package
- an "international" package, with the 13 locales