Way to access languages from the UI?

pikurasa commented 6 years ago

Walter and I have been exchanging emails about this issue, but this is the gist:

In some cases it is not so simple or obvious how one changes the language for music blocks. Additionally, Chrome/ium is often unreliable in setting the language for a couple of different reasons.

Reasons Chrome/ium is unreliable: (I have yet to successfully run MB in Japanese on my own computer, but...)

I hear that the entire system needs to be set to the target language (not just the browser)
I hear that running locally can "generate some cross-origin errors that prevent translation"

General issues with requiring the browser to be set to a particular language:

Sometimes a user may just want to try MB in another language and they are not aware of how to change settings in their browser
Within one language, there are sometimes different options. For example, Japanese should have both a kana (easier version for little kids) and a regular version of Japanese. A quick way to switch would be super nice.
The fact that Chromium has so many barriers to changing the display language.

Questions:

How do other visual programming languages approach this issue (blockly, scratch, etc)?
Walter mentioned something about different versions for each target language, but is this necessary?

If you are knowledgeable in this area, please contribute to this conversation.

sanatankc commented 6 years ago

I think an option to change languages will be very helpful. +1

pikurasa commented 6 years ago

I think an option to change languages will be very helpful. +1

@sanatankc Any ideas how this could be implemented?

sanatankc commented 6 years ago

If i am not wrong, than webl10n has an option to set language.

There could be an option including dropdown of languages in somewhere like bottom of the screen.

pikurasa commented 6 years ago

@sanatankc What is webl10n?

We have various languages, but the browser chooses them currently. There is no way right now to access from UI.

sanatankc commented 6 years ago

Oh sorry, webl10n is translation (localisation) method sugarizer uses currently. I am not sure about musicblocks, though.

walterbender commented 6 years ago

On Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 9:15 PM, Sanatan notifications@github.com wrote:

Oh sorry, webl10n is translation (localisation) method sugarizer uses currently. I am not sure about musicblocks.

It is also used in Music Blocks.

https://github.com/walterbender/musicblocks/blob/master/js/activity.js#L53

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sanatankc commented 6 years ago

Then we can use setLanguage feature I think on changing languages.

pikurasa commented 6 years ago

Then we can use setLanguage feature I think on changing languages.

By using set language, you can access from UI?

walterbender commented 6 years ago

We'd need to expose it to the UI (maybe in the settings panel)

On Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 9:33 PM, Devin Ulibarri notifications@github.com wrote:

Then we can use setLanguage feature I think on changing languages.

By using set language, you can access from UI?

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walterbender commented 6 years ago

I have the following working:

You select a language preference, which is saved to local storage. Refresh the page, and that language preference will take effect. (Will not work with Chrome running from file:/// due to cross-origin error.)

Next: I need to build the UI to expose the language choices.

walterbender commented 6 years ago

Please test on the set-language branch:

https://github.com/walterbender/musicblocks/tree/set-language

pikurasa commented 6 years ago

I tested it:

I think it is a big plus, however there are two design issues that we should consider:

"Please Refresh you Browser" Warning should display in the language chosen. I imagine that this probably takes some finagling, but it is important as the user who has chosen the language cannot be expected to read the English error message.

...and perhaps it displays in current language as well as selected language. I can imagine situations where this would be helpful.

What language does it first open in? Does it still open in the language selected by the browser? I think it is good if it still does. (I tested it, but still unsure what the default behavior is...)

walterbender commented 6 years ago

We'll need to hardwire the translations, but it should be doable. Can you please provide the .ja translation?

Re first open, it will try to use the language of the browser. After that, it will use whatever is in local storage.

sugarlabs / musicblocks

Way to access languages from the UI? #1011