[sword-devel] Installing new/updated locales like we do for modules?

[Nic Carter]

Hi David,

Interesting thoughts:

On 01/03/2011, at 12:23 PM, David Haslam wrote:

> Suggestion:
> For mobile front-ends like PocketSword or and-bible, it seems a pity that
> the whole application needs to be downloaded after a new or updated locale
> has been provided. For improved speed, might it not make better sense that
> when this is the only "software change", we could treat the installation of
> new/updated locales like we do for modules?

I agree, but there are 2 locales that PocketSword (and I assume other front-ends) use:  The books of the Bible (the translations of which are part of the SWORD svn) and the rest of the front-end (which is specific to each and every front-end, given they are all different).
Perhaps there could be a part of the SWORD API that can be used to retrieve the latest set of locales from the SWORD svn?  I can see no issues with this, and that would actually be pretty cool.  

> For anyone with a slow connection, this would save time considerably, since
> the files containing the localization strings must be a lot smaller than the
> download for the whole front-end.

yup, for the names of the books of the Bible, this would simply be text files (and for many front-ends, this would simply be a set of text files).  :)

> btw. This thought came to me when I observed that PocketSword does not yet
> have a localization for Azerbaijani. I have contacts who could help with the
> UI translations for this language. It was a delight to be with one during
> the past few days.

Wow, you meet loads of fun people from all over the place :)
While I love your idea (as my comments above have said), there is a technical hurdle with PocketSword and the iOS App Store in that I cannot update the OS-specific localisations without updating the entire PocketSword binary.  Hence I will only update the localisations when I submit a PS update.
Also, Azerbaijani isn't one of the currently supported iOS languages, so in order to create a localised UI for PS in Azerbaijani, we would need to create a new app that only is in Azerbaijani.  :)

> If my suggestion is deemed attractive for mobile front-ends, then maybe it
> could be adopted more universally for all front-ends.

I can't comment on this bit, but it all sounds fun and interesting.  :)

Thanks!  ybic
	nic...  :)

----
Nic Carter
PocketSword Developer - an iPhone Bible Study app
www: http://crosswire.org/pocketsword
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/app/Pocketsword/id341046078
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pocketsword