Multi-Lingual Squeak, Cathedrals, Bazaars and Fallen Cities.

Edmund Ronald eronald at cmapx.polytechnique.fr
Sat Mar 1 02:24:20 UTC 2003


I plead for Multilingual Squeak (call it MLSQ) to become the responsiblity
of the core Squeak maintainers. Here's why:           

1. MLSQ is important for all of us in non US locales. We would wish all
Squeak to be locale-agnostic: Any program should run in any locale.

2. For MLSQ to be transparent, it should therefore not require the
programmer to understand any Unicode or other charset or encoding
esoterica. MLSQ character processing should ideally isolate the programmer
completely from the specificities of any multi-byte encoding.

3. Clearly, MLSQ needs to be designed carefully by specialists familiar
with multi-byte issues. Reliability from the start is important. Therefore
a cathedral-like initial design approach, with good documentation by the  
likes of Oshima-san and Abe-san makes sense, rather than letting 
mods  accrete as it seems has happened with morphic.

4. However, a Multilingual separate distribution (like Nihongo Squeak), or
a loadable add-on, DO NOT MAKE SENSE. Such a separate package will
inevitably get out of sync with the current beta, get out of sync with
newer add-ons, unnoticed bugs will lie dormant, and people will be too
busy to rewrite their US-centric software to ensure compatibility with
MLSQ, retroactively, when foreign users demand it.

5. If MLSQ is part of the core of every new distribution, any
incompatibilities of MLSQ with standard tools will become immediately
apparent. Furthermore, foreign users will immediately notice any issues
with any new version in their own locales, at the alpha beta and gamma
stages of each distribution and help nip them in the bud. As all software
runs in any locale from the start, writers of add-ons will have bugs in
multi-nationalization communicated to them by foreign beta-testers,
allowing hackers to fumigate their add-on *before* it reaches maturity.

Which is why, again, I plead for internationalisation to be considered a
core feature, to be intended from the start to be handed over to the core
maintainers.

Edmund




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