[wp-hackers] themes internationalization

Nikolay Bachiyski nbachiyski at developer.bg
Mon Feb 14 14:24:45 GMT 2005


Ryan Boren wrote:
> An i18n mailing list and subversion repository are in the works.  Once
> we have the list we can discuss the i18n infrastructure for 1.5 in
> detail.
> 
> For now, the thinking is indeed to avoid using gettext in the default
> theme.  This shifts some of the burden from end users to translators.
Does gettext in the default theme in any means burden the end users? As we already agreed - it is
tougher for the theme developers only.

> But, if someone wants to maintain a gettext version of the default
> theme, each translation team can decide whether to use that or do a
> directly-in-the-templates translation.  We could put the gettext version
> of the theme in the i18n repository.
Maintaining two versions of a piece of code is rarely a good idea, in my opinion. Why not choose one 
way...

> Speaking of the repository, here's how I was thinking about organizing
> it.
> 
> pot/trunk/wordpress.pot  -  The WP pot file
> ...
> es_ES/trunk/messages/es_ES.po  - es_ES po file
> es_ES/trunk/messages/es_ES.mo  - es_ES mo file
> es_ES/trunk/theme/... - es_ES version of the default theme
> es_ES/trunk/dist/...  - Localized versions of license.txt and
> readme.html
> es_ES/trunk/tools/... - Scripts to make tarballs, etc.
> 
> Of course, the directory names can be localized.
> 
> Here's how an es_ES version of WP could be created:
> 
> * Unzip/untar the default WP distribution.
> * Copy es_ES.mo to wp-includes/languages/
> * Copy es_ES/trunk/theme/* over the top of wp-content/themes/default/
> * Edit WPLANG in wp-config-sample.php.  Set it to es_ES.  (You can even
> localize the wp-config-sample.php filename if you like)
> * Copy es_ES/trunk/dist/ files to the wp root.
> * zip/tar everything back up.
> 
The scheme sounds very well - thumbs up!

But why should a different pre-localized version of Wordpress be prepared if 90% of the strings (or 
even more) are already internationalized. Why should the theme differ from the administration, for 
example?

Nikolay


More information about the hackers mailing list