[development] Drupal 6 vs. language support

[Gabor Hojtsy]

Hi,

Seems like a status report is in order, so people know what is in, and 
what needs to be looked at still. There are only two weeks left until 
code freeze, so those who think language support in Drupal 6 is 
important would be welcome to come out with their reviewer hats.

What is in Drupal 6 for multilanguage support:

  - "locales" are replaced by "languages" (we know a lot more about
    languages: their native names, direction (RTL or LTR), languages
    can be weighted, we use the new BCP 47 language codes, etc)

  - language based paths and domains are supported

  - automatic language detection based on browser settings is supported

  - nodes can have a language associated

  - the locale tables are capable of storing translations for user
    defined strings (BUT this is not possible yet, read on!)

The two most important things that should be done, with patches for you 
to review:

  - translation of site settings, content types, user profile fields
    and so on by storing translations of their string properties with
    the locale infrastructure, enabling import/export and simple editing:
    http://drupal.org/node/141461 (also watch this video:
    http://hojtsy.hu/drop/dtvideo.mpeg )

  - translation support for nodes by relating nodes together
    (and possibly their revisions): http://drupal.org/node/142280

We have other smaller issues lingering, but these two are the ones we 
can't manage without your valuable input and review! Unless we get 
reviews on these issues and we can manage to get a polished version of 
these into Drupal 6, it will not be the multilanguage release many 
people hope it to be. It would be sad to miss this opportunity for world 
domination.

Gabor