Mobile Firefox and Localizations -- The Future
Seth Bindernagel
== Abstract ==
1) We will ship only the multi-locale build that includes the following 12 locales: cs, da, de, es-ES, fi, fr, it, nb-NO, nl, pl, pt-PT, and ru. If you are one of these locales, you will need to have your locale green for shipping.
2) For other locales, continue to follow the schedule and translate all strings. We are string frozen. However, we are *not* shipping single locale builds for Mobile Firefox 4.
3) We are in the process of redesigning the user experience so ALL locales can be easily discoverable on any device, for any platform, by any user. We expect to have this solution ready in ~3 months.
== Extended Explanation ==
Resolving the "broken-ness" of our single locale builds for several mobile operating systems has become a great burden for the Mobile RelEng team. Added to that, as the mobile world continues to ship more and more devices with varying Android (and other) operating systems where we hope to succeed, it became clear to the development team that maintaining builds optimized for every use case was, is, and will be (increasingly) difficult and resource intensive.
For those localizers not in the multi-locale build (http://hg.mozilla.org/mobile-browser/file/default/locales/maemo-locales), that does not mean you cannot or should not participate and test! The ftp site below is where we list our Maemo .XPIs. These can be installed now on Firefox versions used on Android. Obviously, it is not 100% correct because they are intended for Maemo, but they are very close.
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mobile/nightly/latest-mozilla-central-linux-l10n/
Presently, Mark Finkle and Madhava Enros (Mobile Dev and UX leads and cc-ed), with a handful of others, are working on a new user experience that will present users with any one of the tens of languages we ship. Our hope is to present users a first run experience on Firefox that allows users easily to select their preferred language, probably via language pack XPIs shown on a web page intended for this experience. For example, I filed this bug to start discussing the process: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=634679 You can follow that bug and also participate. In fact, please do.
We hope to have a solution in place for the coming release of Firefox on Mobile, which could be as soon as 6 weeks or as long as 3-4 months. This is the future and it will allow us to move quickly on multiple platforms on an already fragmented market.
This thread is now open for discussion. What do you think? What do you want? Time to chime in to make Firefox the only super-localized browser on the Mobile Web.
Best,
-Seth
Matjaz Horvat
Let's say I'd like to finish one of the localizations soon. During the
weekend. Can I still make it to the multi-locale build? Are those 12 locales
picked by popularity of the language or l10n completeness?
Regards,
Matjaž
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> dev-...@lists.mozilla.org
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>
Seth Bindernagel
multi-locale build to work on Nokia's N900. They were picked based on a
few reasons: 1) where Nokia was sending their product, 2) where the
greatest number of users of the mobile browser potentially existed, and
3) what would give us the biggest "bang" while still considering a
pretty large download size.
As of right now, the languages in the multi-locale are fixed. I
wouldn't worry though. Getting included in the multi-locale build is
not the goal. The goal that Stuart, mfinkle and Madhava are working on
is about changing the mobile l10n user experience. That, in my opinion,
is a much bigger and high impact goal that we should all participate in
defining.
-Seth
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Matjaz Horvat <mailto:matjaz...@gmail.com>
> February 24, 2011 1:30 AM
>
>
> Seth,
>
> Let's say I'd like to finish one of the localizations soon. During the
> weekend. Can I still make it to the multi-locale build? Are those 12
> locales picked by popularity of the language or l10n completeness?
>
> Regards,
> Matjaž
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seth Bindernagel <mailto:se...@mozilla.com>
> February 23, 2011 4:07 PM
>
>
> Firefox for Mobile Localizers:
>
> == Abstract ==
>
> 1) We will ship only the multi-locale build that includes the
> following 12 locales: cs, da, de, es-ES, fi, fr, it, nb-NO, nl, pl,
> pt-PT, and ru. If you are one of these locales, you will need to have
> your locale green for shipping.
>
> 2) For other locales, continue to follow the schedule and translate
> all strings. We are string frozen. However, we are *not* shipping
> single locale builds for Mobile Firefox 4.
>
> 3) We are in the process of redesigning the user experience so ALL
> locales can be easily discoverable on any device, for any platform, by
> any user. We expect to have this solution ready in ~3 months.
>
> == Extended Explanation ==
>
> Resolving the "broken-ness" of our single locale builds for several
> mobile operating systems has become a great burden for the Mobile
> RelEng team. Added to that, as the mobile world continues to ship more
> and more devices with varying Android (and other) operating systems
> where we hope to succeed, it became clear to the development team that
> maintaining builds optimized for every use case was, is, and will be
> (increasingly) difficult and resource intensive.
>
> For those localizers not in the multi-locale build
> (http://hg.mozilla.org/mobile-browser/file/default/locales/maemo-locales),
Matjaz Horvat
Matjaž
On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Seth Bindernagel <se...@mozilla.com> wrote:
> Those 12 builds were originally picked when we had to create a
> multi-locale build to work on Nokia's N900. They were picked based on a few
> reasons: 1) where Nokia was sending their product, 2) where the greatest
> number of users of the mobile browser potentially existed, and 3) what would
> give us the biggest "bang" while still considering a pretty large download
> size.
>
> As of right now, the languages in the multi-locale are fixed. I wouldn't
> worry though. Getting included in the multi-locale build is not the goal.
> The goal that Stuart, mfinkle and Madhava are working on is about changing
> the mobile l10n user experience. That, in my opinion, is a much bigger and
> high impact goal that we should all participate in defining.
>
> -Seth
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Matjaz Horvat <matjaz...@gmail.com>
> February 24, 2011 1:30 AM
>
> Seth,
>
> Let's say I'd like to finish one of the localizations soon. During the
> weekend. Can I still make it to the multi-locale build? Are those 12 locales
> picked by popularity of the language or l10n completeness?
>
> Regards,
> Matjaž
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Seth Bindernagel <se...@mozilla.com>
Thomas Arend
mozilla.dev.l10n/browse_thread/thread/0f54fcaafb39ddd6?pli=1)
This is excellent news for all localizers and for all users as they
will eventually benefit from many more L10N options and easy-to-
install language packages. We are currently starting to invest
engineering resources into this important long-term solution, and we
are hoping to see our next milestones within the next few months. That
is why we won't have the bandwidth to add any more languages to the
multi-locale build at this moment, unfortunately. I have been working
with Mark, Madhava, and with other members of our team on this
important project. So, please bear with us during this transition and
make sure to continue your incredible support and your valuable
guidance for mobile L10N. I really appreciate it.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
-Thomas
Thomas Arend | Principal Product Manager Mobile | Mozilla |
tar...@mozilla.com
Thomas Arend
> Thanks for clearing it out, it makes perfect sense to me.
>
> Matjaž
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Seth Bindernagel <se...@mozilla.com> wrote:
> > Those 12 builds were originally picked when we had to create a
> > multi-locale build to work on Nokia's N900. They were picked based on a few
> > reasons: 1) where Nokia was sending their product, 2) where the greatest
> > number of users of the mobile browser potentially existed, and 3) what would
> > give us the biggest "bang" while still considering a pretty large download
> > size.
>
> > As of right now, the languages in the multi-locale are fixed. I wouldn't
> > worry though. Getting included in the multi-locale build is not the goal.
> > The goal that Stuart, mfinkle and Madhava are working on is about changing
> > the mobile l10n user experience. That, in my opinion, is a much bigger and
> > high impact goal that we should all participate in defining.
>
> > -Seth
>
> > ------------------------------
>
>
> > Presently, Mark Finkle and Madhava Enros (Mobile Dev and UX leads and
> > cc-ed), with a handful of others, are working on a new user experience that
> > will present users with any one of the tens of languages we ship. Our hope
> > is to present users a first run experience on Firefox that allows users
> > easily to select their preferred language, probably via language pack XPIs
> > shown on a web page intended for this experience. For example, I filed this
> > bug to start discussing the process:
> > bug and also participate. In fact, please do.
>
> > We hope to have a solution in place for the coming release of Firefox on
> > Mobile, which could be as soon as 6 weeks or as long as 3-4 months. This is
> > the future and it will allow us to move quickly on multiple platforms on an
> > already fragmented market.
>
> > This thread is now open for discussion. What do you think? What do you
> > want? Time to chime in to make Firefox the only super-localized browser on
> > the Mobile Web.
>
> > Best,
>
> > -Seth
> > _______________________________________________
> > dev-l10n mailing list
> >https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-l10n