[Foundation-l] [Wikitech-l] Implementing the Babel extension

Wed Jul 2 21:21:15 UTC 2008

On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 4:29 PM, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 2:50 PM, mike.lifeguard <mike.lifeguard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Exactly! And the babel templates are exactly the same. /If/ we decide to
>> have a system standardized across wikis (a good idea, IMO) then hardcoding
>> them is not an optimal solution.
>
> I would disagree with this assertion about optimality. In addition to
> standardizing the templates, they will be able to use ISO language
> codes automatically and update translation text from betawiki. For the
> problem that this is trying to solve, a simplification to the forrest
> of babel templates, increase in interlingual participation, and
> further integration of betawiki translation efforts into this, I would
> say the extension is a highly optimal solution.
>
>> The optimal solution is something like:
>> * https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4547
>
> I do like this idea, in theory. What I don't like is, as I said
> before, that we would want to provide exceptions for wikis that don't
> want to be using the shared templates. However, if this was
> implemented in a similar manner to how image sharing is, that a local
> copy is taken if it exists and the version from commons is taken
> otherwise, that would be fine by me. You still lose some of the
> features of the babel extension, however, but you do solve the core
> problem.
>
> --Andrew Whitworth
>
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FWIW: Has anyone even asked the smaller wikis if they _want_ to use
standardized Babel templates (or any community, for that matter?).

For all we know, the various wikis _like_ their babel templates and don't
want some extension deciding things for them. I'm all for interwiki
cooperation, but let's ensure it's actually cooperation and not
the Meta/Foundation-l community deciding something for the rest
of the projects.

-Chad