Firefox 34+35: New search exposed on localized Linux systems due to language packs, make strings localizable?

[Sebastian Hengst]

Hi,

the new one-click search is also shown to users which use an en-US build
with language packs on top which is the default setup e.g. on Ubuntu and
Xubuntu. The English strings are hardcoded and not available in the
translation files. Because of that, the users don't see localized but
English strings (e.g. the whole Search pane in the Preferences is
English). Should the strings be made localizable, at least for
localizers who want to work on them for Firefox 35 (currently in beta)?

Sebastian

[Kim Ludvigsen]

Den 03-12-2014 kl. 19:06 skrev Sebastian Hengst:

> The English strings are hardcoded and not available in the
> translation files. Because of that, the users don't see localized but
> English strings (e.g. the whole Search pane in the Preferences is
> English). Should the strings be made localizable, at least for
> localizers who want to work on them for Firefox 35 (currently in beta)?

Is there any reason not to make the strings localizable?

In my opinion, if a user has chosen a different language than English,
he shouldn't see /any/ strings that are not translated.

--
Kim Ludvigsen

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

They're localizable on l10n-central (fx37) and aurora (fx36), since this
feature landed in the last weeks of the beta cycle for Firefox 34.

Users of non en-US build are not supposed to see the feature enabled on
Firefox 34/35 (that should still happen for users of localized builds).

Francesco

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[Kim Ludvigsen]

Den 03-12-2014 kl. 22:25 skrev Francesco Lodolo [:flod]:
> They're localizable on l10n-central (fx37) and aurora (fx36), since this
> feature landed in the last weeks of the beta cycle for Firefox 34.
>
> Users of non en-US build are not supposed to see the feature enabled on
> Firefox 34/35 (that should still happen for users of localized builds).

When I wrote my earlier post, I didn't know how bad it would look. I
have just upgraded (I am using Linux Mint), and it is not pretty, having
a whole page in the settings in English. It makes the translation team
look like amateurs - I feel a little ashamed, even though it is not my
fault :-/

This should have been avoided, and we really should avoid it for the
next release. Having this for two releases is in my opinion extremely
bad - even though only a minority will see it.

--
Kim Ludvigsen

[Theo Chevalier]

Le 03/12/2014 16:25, Francesco Lodolo [:flod] a écrit :
> They're localizable on l10n-central (fx37) and aurora (fx36), since this
> feature landed in the last weeks of the beta cycle for Firefox 34.
>
> Users of non en-US build are not supposed to see the feature enabled on
> Firefox 34/35 (that should still happen for users of localized builds).
>
> Francesco

Yeah, but as Sebastian mentioned, unfortunately Linux distros are using
en-US builds with langpacks on top of it. If you run the default Firefox
on Ubuntu in Italian, you'll get a Firefox partially localized in
Italian: the Search preference panel will be in English, the placeholder
in searchbar will be in English, etc. :/

Do we have a bug filled for that? We need to make sure this won't happen
for 35, and I think we should discuss with RelEng to see if a chemspill
release is scheduled and could include a fix.

Theo

[Sebastian Hengst]

> Do we have a bug filled for that? We need to make sure this won't happen
> for 35, and I think we should discuss with RelEng to see if a chemspill
> release is scheduled and could include a fix.

Filed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1107278

[Axel Hecht]

A bit more technical detail:

That the pref approach in the landing wouldn't work for linux distro
builds was clear, at least to me. There are no language-dependent pref
files in gecko.

Now, the distro builds don't ship en-US builds, i.e., the
firefox-l10n.js is empty. Instead of that, they're adding a pref to
switch on matchOS.

Which means, by that assumption, the feature should have been preffed
off for all locales including en-US.

It's unclear how that pref made it into the linux distro builds, if
that's just a weird artifact from the build process they're using, or an
explicit decision of at least some distro maintainers to switch this
feature on with hardcoded English strings.

Axel