(gettext.info)Discussions

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12.3 Discussions
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   * NOTE: * This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
revised.

   Facing this internationalization effort, a few users expressed their
concerns.  Some of these doubts are presented and discussed, here.

   • Smaller groups

     Some languages are not spoken by a very large number of people, so
     people speaking them sometimes consider that there may not be all
     that much demand such versions of free software packages.
     Moreover, many people being _into computers_, in some countries,
     generally seem to prefer English versions of their software.

     On the other end, people might enjoy their own language a lot, and
     be very motivated at providing to themselves the pleasure of having
     their beloved free software speaking their mother tongue.  They do
     themselves a personal favor, and do not pay that much attention to
     the number of people benefiting of their work.

   • Misinterpretation

     Other users are shy to push forward their own language, seeing in
     this some kind of misplaced propaganda.  Someone thought there must
     be some users of the language over the networks pestering other
     people with it.

     But any spoken language is worth localization, because there are
     people behind the language for whom the language is important and
     dear to their hearts.

   • Odd translations

     The biggest problem is to find the right translations so that
     everybody can understand the messages.  Translations are usually a
     little odd.  Some people get used to English, to the extent they
     may find translations into their own language “rather pushy,
     obnoxious and sometimes even hilarious.” As a French speaking man,
     I have the experience of those instruction manuals for goods, so
     poorly translated in French in Korea or Taiwan…

     The fact is that we sometimes have to create a kind of national
     computer culture, and this is not easy without the collaboration of
     many people liking their mother tongue.  This is why translations
     are better achieved by people knowing and loving their own
     language, and ready to work together at improving the results they
     obtain.

   • Dependencies over the GPL or LGPL

     Some people wonder if using GNU ‘gettext’ necessarily brings their
     package under the protective wing of the GNU General Public License
     or the GNU Lesser General Public License, when they do not want to
     make their program free, or want other kinds of freedom.  The
     simplest answer is “normally not”.

     The ‘gettext-runtime’ part of GNU ‘gettext’, i.e. the contents of
     ‘libintl’, is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License.
     The ‘gettext-tools’ part of GNU ‘gettext’, i.e. the rest of the GNU
     ‘gettext’ package, is covered by the GNU General Public License.

     The mere marking of localizable strings in a package, or
     conditional inclusion of a few lines for initialization, is not
     really including GPL’ed or LGPL’ed code.  However, since the
     localization routines in ‘libintl’ are under the LGPL, the LGPL
     needs to be considered.  It gives the right to distribute the
     complete unmodified source of ‘libintl’ even with non-free
     programs.  It also gives the right to use ‘libintl’ as a shared
     library, even for non-free programs.  But it gives the right to use
     ‘libintl’ as a static library or to incorporate ‘libintl’ into
     another library only to free software.