Re: [stellation-res] Stellation status

["Rodolfo M.Raya" <rmraya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2002-11-24 at 17:18, Mark C. Chu-Carroll wrote:
> On Sat, 2002-11-23 at 06:55, Rodolfo M.Raya wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > After a long absence I'm in contact again.
> > 
> > I've been reading all the messages since I left my house about 3
> > months ago and this is the first opportunity I have to participate
> > again.
> 
> Welcome back!

Thanks

> 
> > I remember a couple of messages about international users of
> > Stellation. I may change the map quite a lot these days as I'm
> > currently working in Thailand and plan to use it here, in Singapore
> > and Beijing as soon as there is a stable release that you can
> > recommend. I18n is not a problem now, but in a near future Stellation
> > will be used in Korea too and it will be a major issue.
> 
> Jonathan looked at doing i18n, and to do it full-bore all through the
> code was incredibly complicated. So we decided, at the time, to put it
> off until there was someone who really needed it.

I know it is complicated. It involves a lot of extra work even in simple
projects.

> My first question, before we get into any more detail, is how far
> does the internationalization need to go? There's a bunch of
> options:
> 
> (1) Be able to deal with international data. That is, make sure that
>   all artifacts, comments, labels, names, etc., all work even in
>   non-latin character sets. Since Java is working in UTF-8, as long as
>   the databases can handle UTF-8 characters correctly, we're already
>   there. But this requires testing to be sure in all the DBs - do you
>   have any good UTF-8 non-latin data that you can give us for testing?
> 
> (2) Everything in (1) plus have all system messages be in translatable
>   resources. Java and Eclipse both provide a lot of support for this,
>   but it's still difficult. 
> 
> (3) Everything in (2) plus have all command names and options also be
>   in translatable resources.
> 
> My opinion is that right now, (3) is probably not doable. Jonathan's
> experiments with pulling all string literals out into translatable
> resources showed what was involved. I think coping with it is just too
> much complexity for us right now. 

I need (1) working since yesterday and (2) in a near future.

My plan is to use Stellation as a text repository with version control 
for storing XML documents in many languages. Correct handling of Asian
languages is a must. I'm trying to standardize on UTF-8 encoding, but
anything can show up.

> (2) we could do if it was really necessary, but we'd need you to really
> dig in and help.

I will help with it.

> > I'm worried because I will need to support Windows and Linux users
> > alike. Is the Windows port already working?
> 
> We're working on it. Jonathan Gossage has done a lot of work on fixing
> the windows problems, and those of us at IBM will also be looking at it
> as we head for our alpha release, which we hope to do some time in 
> december.

This is good news for me.

> 
> > I will make all necessary changes to use Firebird on Windows and
> > Linux. But I don't know what needs to be done. Can anybody draft a
> > list of adjustments?
> 
> For Linux, you should be able to just make sure that the
> FirebirdDatabase class in org.eclipse.stellation.repos.database is
> correct. Then just write some docs on how to set up Firebird so
> that the database is ready for Stellation to connect and create
> a repository.

I already wrote some docs on how to install Firebird and how to setup
Stellation to work with it, but it will need a lot of updates if not a
complete rewrite.

> > As I'm behind firewalls most of the time I don't have a current
> > version from CVS. I hope to be able to get one soon and compile it
> > without problems.
> 
> It would be best if you could get CVS access. We're working on setting
> up regular builds, so if there's no way around the firewall, you but
> your life will be easier if you can just do CVS updates from Eclipse. 

I will have access to CVS on next week when I get to Singapore. I expect
to start working on Stellation again on Dec 5.

Regards,
Rodolfo

-- 
Rodolfo M.Raya <rmraya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Maxprograms