To: OpenOffice.org L10N list Cc: Jim Park (Unicode NSIS) FYI _____________________________
Hi everyone :)If your language requires UTF-8, up until recently the Windows install software NSIS has not supported it. I have encountered this problem in multiple localization projects. It means the Windows version of your translated software will not have a localized installer. In many cases, this means your translated interface will not be accessible to Windows users.
This _was_ the case in OpenOffice.org. However, our Windows install developers have just completed the upgrade to Unicode NSIS [1]. I have viewed the screenshots, and we now have a viable OpenOffice.org Windows installer for Vietnamese [2].
This has been a long and complex process for the Vietnamese OpenOffice.org Project. However, we are delighted with the result, and wish to take this opportunity to pass on the good news to all other language teams. You can now have an OpenOffice.org Windows installer which supports UTF-8. This upgrade to Unicode NSIS is project-wide: your UTF-8 strings will automatically be correctly displayed once this cws is integrated into the main codeline. This should be done in time for the OpenOffice.org 3.0 release.
This is a big step forward for Windows installers in general. In other localization projects, your Windows installer may well be inaccessible due to use of the non-Unicode NSIS. You may wish to take this opportunity to check that all your localization projects are using Unicode NSIS, and if not, to request that they do.
For example, in the Pidgin project, we have noticed that we are not using Unicode NSIS, which effectively disables the whole Windows translation for 35 out of 72 languages. We have requested Pidgin upgrade to Unicode NSIS.
If your language requires UTF-8, it is also important to add its support to the Unicode NSIS software. This is a quick and simple process: all you have to do is translate a couple of brief files. Please contact the developer of Unicode NSIS, who is CC'd to this email. He is happy to help, and will integrate your translations as quickly as possible.
This is a key element in supporting your user community. Even if you're not a Windows user, as I am not, you probably have a great many Windows users who can benefit from this long-awaited improvement.
In the case of Vietnamese, nearly all our users are still using Windows [3], so without this upgrade, our OpenOffice.org builds would be inaccessible to that huge majority of users.
I am just tickled pink that this problem is now solved for us, and I hope this improvement also benefits you. :)
from Clytie Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team http://vnoss.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=projects:l10n [1] http://www.scratchpaper.com/ [2] http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=84827 Vietnamese is a test case for Unicode support. [3] however informally...
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