Re: [stellation-res] Stellation status

["Jonathan Gossage" <jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rodolfo M.Raya" <rmraya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <stellation-res@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 7:52 AM
Subject: Re: [stellation-res] Stellation status


> 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.

Unfortunately. most work in East Asian languages seems to be in DBCS
character sets rather than in Unicode variants and if the documents already
exist it will be much easier from a logisitical viewpoint to handle them in
their original encoding. You will also have to look at the problems of
distribution and the tools that may be used to consume these documents.

>
> > (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
>

Regards

Jonathan

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