[sword-devel] language/locale codes

[Karl Kleinpaste]

I find myself mystified as to why this is any real issue or why any
particular choice here is labeled "wrong."  You want to localize to the
user?  Fine, go ahead.  For Xiphos, we choose "all native, all the time,
when we can."  We've had not one complaint and a couple thank-yous.

I'd like to believe that those studying a particular (dead) language
know what it looks like.  How would they not?  What does it mean to
"study a language" when even its name is unfamiliar to the student?

Xiphos picked up this choice about 18 months or 2 years ago (credit and
thanx to Dom for the impetus) as a matter of showing respect to
non-English-speaking users for their own languages' native names: In
Xiphos, *everybody* sees "French" as "Français," *everybody* sees
Bulgarian as "Български," and *everybody* sees Armenian as "Հայերեն."

Someone wondered about the cost to handle a full list of languages.  I
just timed it.  On this 2GHz T60p, Xiphos inhales 7875 names from a
114Kbyte (commented) file in 10.4 milliseconds -- utterly
inconsequential.