X-Git-Url: http://git.vanrenterghem.biz/git.ikiwiki.info.git/blobdiff_plain/ec965fc92cd41f597c6e8e88584b9a688407c8c6..d29419ab0bd181beda6971bf622c3ba8bdd2fd8c:/doc/plugins/po/discussion.mdwn diff --git a/doc/plugins/po/discussion.mdwn b/doc/plugins/po/discussion.mdwn index 570b2a6ef..ab822e76c 100644 --- a/doc/plugins/po/discussion.mdwn +++ b/doc/plugins/po/discussion.mdwn @@ -206,3 +206,521 @@ section. ## Fixed holes + +---- + +# original contrib/po page, with old commentary + +I've been working on a plugin called "po", that adds support for multi-lingual wikis, +translated with gettext, using [po4a](http://po4a.alioth.debian.org/). + +More information: + +* It can be found in my "po" branch: + `git clone git://gaffer.ptitcanardnoir.org/ikiwiki.git` +* It is self-contained, *i.e.* it does not modify ikiwiki core at all. +* It is documented (including TODO and plans for next work steps) in + `doc/plugins/po.mdwn`, which can be found in the same branch. +* No public demo site is available so far, I'm working on this. + +My plan is to get this plugin clean enough to be included in ikiwiki. + +The current version is a proof-of-concept, mature enough for me to dare submitting it here, +but I'm prepared to hear various helpful remarks, and to rewrite parts of it as needed. + +Any thoughts on this? + +> Well, I think it's pretty stunning what you've done here. Seems very +> complete and well thought out. I have not read the code in great detail +> yet. +> +> Just using po files is an approach I've never seen tried with a wiki. I +> suspect it will work better for some wikis than others. For wikis that +> just want translations that match the master language as closely as +> possible and don't wander off and diverge, it seems perfect. (But what happens +> if someone edits the Discussion page of a translated page?) +> +> Please keep me posted, when you get closer to having all issues solved +> and ready for merging I can do a review and hopefully help with the +> security items you listed. --[[Joey]] + +>> Thanks a lot for your quick review, it's reassuring to hear such nice words +>> from you. I did not want to design and write a full translation system, when +>> tools such as gettext/po4a already have all the needed functionality, for cases +>> where the master/slave languages paradigm fits. +>> Integrating these tools into ikiwiki plugin system was a pleasure. +>> +>> I'll tell you when I'm ready for merging, but in the meantime, +>> I'd like you to review the changes I did to the core (3 added hooks). +>> Can you please do this? If not, I'll go on and hope I'm not going to far in +>> the wrong direction. +>> +>>> Sure.. I'm not completly happy with any of the hooks since they're very +>>> special purpose, and also since `run_hooks` is not the best interface +>>> for a hook that modifies a variable, where only the last hook run will +>>> actually do anything. It might be better to just wrap +>>> `targetpage`, `bestlink`, and `beautify_urlpath`. But, I noticed +>>> the other day that such wrappers around exported functions are only visible by +>>> plugins loaded after the plugin that defines them. +>>> +>>> Update: Take a look at the new "Function overriding" section of +>>> [[plugins/write]]. I think you can just inject wrappers about a few ikiwiki +>>> functions, rather than adding hooks. The `inject` function is pretty +>>> insane^Wlow level, but seems to work great. --[[Joey]] +>>> +>>>> Thanks a lot, it seems to be a nice interface for what I was trying to achieve. +>>>> I may be forced to wait two long weeks before I have a chance to confirm +>>>> this. Stay tuned. --[[intrigeri]] +>>>> +>>>>> I've updated the plugin to use `inject`. It is now fully self-contained, +>>>>> and does not modify the core anymore. --[[intrigeri]] +>> +>> The Discussion pages issue is something I am not sure about yet. But I will +>> probably decide that "slave" pages, being only translations, don't deserve +>> a discussion page: the discussion should happen in the language in which the +>> pages are written for real, which is the "master" one. --[[intrigeri]] +>> +>> I think that's a good decision, you don't want to translate discussion, +>> and if the discussion page turns out multilingual, well, se la vi. ;-) +>> +>> Relatedly, what happens if a translated page has a broken link, and you +>> click on it to edit it? Seems you'd first have to create a master page +>> and could only then translate it, right? I wonder if this will be clear +>> though to the user. +>> +>>> Right: a broken link points to the URL that allows to create +>>> a page that can either be a new master page or a non-translatable +>>> page, depending on `po_translatable_pages` value. The best +>>> solution I can thing of is to use [[plugins/edittemplate]] to +>>> insert something like "Warning: this is a master page, that must +>>> be written in $MASTER_LANGUAGE" into newly created master pages, +>>> and maybe another warning message on newly created +>>> non-translatable pages. It seems quite doable to me, but in order +>>> to avoid breaking existing functionality, it implies to hack a bit +>>> [[plugins/edittemplate]] so that multiple templates can be +>>> inserted at page creation time. [[--intrigeri]] +>>> +>>>> I implemented such a warning using the formbuilder_setup hook. +>>>> --[[intrigeri]] +>> +>> And also, is there any way to start a translation of a page into a new +>> lanauge using the web interface? +>> +>>> When a new language is added to `po_slave_languages`, a rebuild is +>>> triggered, and all missing PO files are created and checked into +>>> VCS. An unpriviledged wiki user can not add a new language to +>>> `po_slave_languages`, though. One could think of adding the needed +>>> interface to translate a page into a yet-unsupported slave +>>> language, and this would automagically add this new language to +>>> `po_slave_languages`. It would probably be useful in some +>>> usecases, but I'm not comfortable with letting unpriviledged wiki +>>> users change the wiki configuration as a side effect of their +>>> actions; if this were to be implemented, special care would be +>>> needed. [[--intrigeri]] +>>> +>>>> Actually I meant into any of the currently supported languages. +>>>> I guess that if the template modification is made, it will list those +>>>> languages on the page, and if a translation to a language is missing, +>>>> the link will allow creating it? +>>>> +>>>>> Any translation page always exist for every supported slave +>>>>> language, even if no string at all have been translated yet. +>>>>> This implies the po plugin is especially friendly to people who +>>>>> prefer reading in their native language if available, but don't +>>>>> mind reading in English else. +>>>>> +>>>>> While I'm at it, there is a remaining issue that needs to be +>>>>> sorted out: how painful it could be for non-English speakers +>>>>> (assuming the master language is English) to be perfectly able +>>>>> to navigate between translation pages supposed to be written in +>>>>> their own language, when their translation level is most +>>>>> often low. +>>>>> +>>>>> (It is currently easy to display this status on the translation +>>>>> page itself, but then it's too late, and how frustrating to load +>>>>> a page just to realize it's actually not translated enough for +>>>>> you. The "other languages" loop also allows displaying this +>>>>> information, but it is generally not the primary +>>>>> navigation tool.) +>>>>> +>>>>> IMHO, this is actually a social problem (i.e. it's no use adding +>>>>> a language to the supported slave ones if you don't have the +>>>>> manpower to actually do the translations), that can't be fully +>>>>> solved by technical solutions, but I can think of some hacks +>>>>> that would limit the negative impact: a given translation's +>>>>> status (currently = percent translated) could be displayed next +>>>>> to the link that leads to it; a color code could as well be used +>>>>> ("just" a matter of adding a CSS id or class to the links, +>>>>> depending on this variable). As there is already work to be done +>>>>> to have the links text generation more customizable through +>>>>> plugins, I could do both at the same time if we consider this +>>>>> matter to be important enough. --[[intrigeri]] +>>>>> +>>>>>> The translation status in links is now implemented in my +>>>>>> `po`branch. It requires my `meta` branch changes to +>>>>>> work, though. I consider the latter to be mature enough to +>>>>>> be merged. --[[intrigeri]] + +>> FWIW, I'm tracking your po branch in ikiwiki master git in the po +>> branch. One thing I'd like to try in there is setting up a translated +>> basewiki, which seems like it should be pretty easy to do, and would be +>> a great demo! --[[Joey]] +>> +>>> I have a complete translation of basewiki into danish, available merged into +>>> ikiwiki at git://source.jones.dk/ikiwiki-upstream (branch underlay-da), and am working with +>>> others on preparing one in german. For a complete translated user +>>> experience, however, you will also need templates translated (there are a few +>>> translatable strings there too). My most recent po4a Markdown improvements +>>> adopted upstream but not yet in Debian (see +>>> [bug#530574](http://bugs.debian.org/530574)) correctly handles multiple +>>> files in a single PO which might be relevant for template translation handling. +>>> --[[JonasSmedegaard]] +>> +>>> I've merged your changes into my own branch, and made great +>>> progress on the various todo items. Please note my repository +>>> location has changed a few days ago, my user page was updated +>>> accordingly, but I forgot to update this page at the same time. +>>> Hoping it's not too complicated to relocated an existing remote... +>>> (never done that, I'm a Git beginner as well as a Perl +>>> newbie) --[[intrigeri]] +>>>> +>>>> Just a matter of editing .git/config, thanks for the heads up. +>>>>> +>>>>> Joey, please have a look at my branch, your help would be really +>>>>> welcome for the security research, as I'm almost done with what +>>>>> I am able to do myself in this area. --[[intrigeri]] +>>>>>> +>>>>>> I came up with a patch for the WrapI18N issue --[[Joey]] + +I've set this plugin development aside for a while. I will be back and +finish it at some point in the first quarter of 2009. --[[intrigeri]] + +> Abstract: Joey, please have a look at my po and meta branches. +> +> Detailed progress report: +> +> * it seems the po branch in your repository has not been tracking my +> own po branch for two months. any config issue? +> * all the plugin's todo items have been completed, robustness tests +> done +> * I've finished the detailed security audit, and the fix for po4a +> bugs has entered upstream CVS last week +> * I've merged your new `checkcontent` hook with the `cansave` hook +> I previously introduced in my own branch; blogspam plugin updated +> accordingly +> * the rename hook changes we discussed elsewhere are also part of my +> branch +> * I've introduced two new hooks (`canremove` and `canrename`), not +> a big deal; IMHO, they extend quite logically the plugin interface +> * as highlighted on [[bugs/pagetitle_function_does_not_respect_meta_titles]], +> my `meta` branch contains a new feature that is really useful in a +> translatable wiki +> +> As a conclusion, I'm feeling that my branches are ready to be +> merged; only thing missing, I guess, are a bit of discussion and +> subsequent adjustments. +> +> --[[intrigeri]] + +> I've looked it over and updated my branch with some (untested) +> changes. +> +>> I've merged your changes into my branch. Only one was buggy. +> +> Sorry, I'd forgotten about your cansave hook.. sorry for the duplicate +> work there. +> +> Reviewing the changes, mostly outside of `po.pm`, I have +> the following issues. +> +> * renamepage to renamelink change would break the ikiwiki +> 3.x API, which I've promised not to do, so needs to be avoided +> somehow. (Sorry, I guess I dropped the ball on not getting this +> API change in before cutting 3.0..) +>> +>> Fixed, see [[todo/need_global_renamepage_hook]]. +>> +> * I don't understand the parentlinks code change and need to figure it +> out. Can you explain what is going on there? +>> +>> I'm calling `bestlink` there so that po's injected `bestlink` is +>> run. This way, the parent links of a page link to the parent page +>> version in the proper language, depending on the +>> `po_link_to=current` and `po_link_to=negotiated` settings. +>> Moreover, when using my meta branch enhancements plus meta title to +>> make pages titles translatable, this small patch is needed to get +>> the translated titles into parentlinks. +>> +> * canrename's mix of positional and named parameters is way too +> ugly to get into an ikiwiki API. Use named parameters +> entirely. Also probably should just use named parameters +> for canremove. +> * `skeleton.pm.example`'s canrename needs fixing to use either +> the current or my suggested parameters. +>> +>> Done. +>> +> * I don't like the exporting of `%backlinks` and `$backlinks_calculated` +> (the latter is exported but not used). +>> +>> The commit message for 85f865b5d98e0122934d11e3f3eb6703e4f4c620 +>> contains the rationale for this change. I guess I don't understand +>> the subtleties of `our` use, and perldoc does not help me a lot. +>> IIRC, I actually did not use `our` to "export" these variables, but +>> rather to have them shared between `Render.pm` uses. +>> +>>> My wording was unclear, I meant exposing. --[[Joey]] +>>> +>>>> I guess I still don't know Perl's `our` enough to understand clearly. +>>>> No matter whether these variables are declared with `my` or `our`, +>>>> any plugin can `use IkiWiki::Render` and then access +>>>> `$IkiWiki::backlinks`, as already does e.g. the pagestat plugin. +>>>> So I guess your problem is not with letting plugins use these +>>>> variables, but with them being visible for every piece of +>>>> (possibly external) code called from `Render.pm`. Am I right? +>>>> If I understand clearly, using a brace block to lexically enclose +>>>> these two `our` declarations, alongside with the `calculate_backlinks` +>>>> and `backlinks` subs definitions, would be a proper solution, wouldn't +>>>> it? --[[intrigeri]] +>>>> +>>>>> No, %backlinks and the backlinks() function are not the same thing. +>>>>> The variable is lexically scoped; only accessible from inside +>>>>> `Render.pm` --[[Joey]] +>>>> +> * What is this `IkiWiki::nicepagetitle` and why are you +> injecting it into that namespace when only your module uses it? +> Actually, I can't even find a caller of it in your module. +>> +>> I guess you should have a look to my `meta` branch and to +>> [[bugs/pagetitle_function_does_not_respect_meta_titles]] in order +>> to understand this :) +>> +>>> It would probably be good if I could merge this branch without +>>> having to worry about also immediatly merging that one. --[[Joey]] +>>> +>>>> I removed all dependencies on my `meta` branch from the `po` one. +>>>> This implied removing the `po_translation_status_in_links` and +>>>> `po_strictly_refresh_backlinks` features, and every link text is now +>>>> displayed in the master language. I believe the removed features really +>>>> enhance user experience of a translatable wiki, that's why I was +>>>> initially supposing the `meta` branch would be merged first. +>>>> IMHO, we'll need to come back to this quite soon after `po` is merged. +>>>> --[[intrigeri]] +>>>> +>>>> Maybe you should keep those features in a meta-po branch? +>>>> I did a cursory review of your meta last night, have some issues with it, +>>>> but this page isn't the place for a detailed review. --[[Joey]] +>>>> +>>>>> Done. --[[intrigeri]] +>>> +> * I'm very fearful of the `add_depends` in `postscan`. +> Does this make every page depend on every page that links +> to it? Won't this absurdly bloat the dependency pagespecs +> and slow everything down? And since nicepagetitle is given +> as the reason for doing it, and nicepagetitle isn't used, +> why do it? +>> +>> As explained in the 85f865b5d98e0122934d11e3f3eb6703e4f4c620 log: +>> this feature hits performance a bit. Its cost was quite small in my +>> real-world use-cases (a few percents bigger refresh time), but +>> could be bigger in worst cases. When using the po plugin with my +>> meta branch changes (i.e. the `nicepagetitle` thing), and having +>> enabled the option to display translation status in links, this +>> maintains the translation status up-to-date in backlinks. Same when +>> using meta title to make the pages titles translatable. It does +>> help having a nice and consistent translated wiki, but as it can +>> also involve problems, I just turned it into an option. +>> +>>> This has been completely removed for now due to the removal of +>>> the dependency on my `meta` branch. --[[intrigeri]] +>> +> * The po4a Suggests should be versioned to the first version +> that can be used safely, and that version documented in +> `plugins/po.mdwn`. +>> +>> Done. +>> +>> --[[intrigeri]] +> +> --[[Joey]] + +I reverted the `%backlinks` and `$backlinks_calculated` exposing. +The issue they were solving probably will arise again when I'll work +on my meta branch again (i.e. when the simplified po one is merged), +but the po thing is supposed to work without these ugly `our`. +Seems like it was the last unaddressed item from Joey's review, so I'm +daring a timid "please pull"... or rather, please review again :) +--[[intrigeri]] + +> Ok, I've reviewed and merged into my own po branch. It's looking very +> mergeable. +> +> * Is it worth trying to fix compatability with `indexpages`? +>> +>> Supporting `usedirs` being enabled or disabled was already quite +>> hard IIRC, so supporting all four combinations of `usedirs` and +>> `indexpages` settings will probably be painful. I propose we forget +>> about it until someone reports he/she badly needs it, and then +>> we'll see what can be done. +>> +> * Would it make sense to go ahead and modify `page.tmpl` to use +> OTHERLANGUAGES and PERCENTTRANSLATED, instead of documenting how to modify it? +>> +>> Done in my branch. +>> +> * Would it be better to disable po support for pages that use unsupported +> or poorly-supported markup languages? +> +>> I prefer keeping it enabled, as: +>> +>> * most wiki markups "almost work" +>> * when someone needs one of these to be fully supported, it's not +>> that hard to add dedicated support for it to po4a; if it were +>> disabled, I fear the ones who could do this would maybe think +>> it's blandly impossible and give up. +>> + +> * What's the reasoning behind checking that the link plugin +> is enabled? AFAICS, the same code in the scan hook should +> also work when other link plugins like camelcase are used. +>> +>> That's right, fixed. +>> +> * In `pagetemplate` there is a comment that claims the code +> relies on `genpage`, but I don't see how it does; it seems +> to always add a discussion link? +>> +>> It relies on IkiWiki::Render's `genpage` as this function sets the +>> `discussionlink` template param iff it considers a discussion link +>> should appear on the current page. That's why I'm testing +>> `$template->param('discussionlink')`. +>> +>>> Maybe I was really wondering why it says it could lead to a broken +>>> link if the cgiurl is disabled. I think I see why now: Discussionlink +>>> will be set to a link to an existing disucssion page, even if cgi is +>>> disabled -- but there's no guarantee of a translated discussion page +>>> existing in that case. *However*, htmllink actually checks +>>> for this case, and will avoid generating a broken link so AFAICS, the +>>> comment is actually innacurate.. what will really happen in this case +>>> is discussionlink will be set to a non-link translation of +>>> "discussion". Also, I consider `$config{cgi}` and `%links` (etc) +>>> documented parts of the plugin interface, which won't change; po could +>>> rely on them to avoid this minor problem. --[[Joey]] +>>>> +>>>> Done in my branch. --[[intrigeri]] +>>>> +> +> * Is there any real reason not to allow removing a translation? +> I'm imagining a spammy translation, which an admin might not +> be able to fix, but could remove. +>> +>> On the other hand, allowing one to "remove" a translation would +>> probably lead to misunderstandings, as such a "removed" translation +>> page would appear back as soon as it is "removed" (with no strings +>> translated, though). I think an admin would be in a position to +>> delete the spammy `.po` file by hand using whatever VCS is in use. +>> Not that I'd really care, but I am slightly in favour of the way +>> it currently works. +>> +>>> That would definitly be confusing. It sounds to me like if we end up +>>> needing to allow web-based deletion of spammy translations, it will +>>> need improvements to the deletion UI to de-confuse that. It's fine to +>>> put that off until needed --[[Joey]] +>> +> * Re the meta title escaping issue worked around by `change`. +> I suppose this does not only affect meta, but other things +> at scan time too. Also, handling it only on rebuild feels +> suspicious -- a refresh could involve changes to multiple +> pages and trigger the same problem, I think. Also, exposing +> this rebuild to the user seems really ugly, not confidence inducing. +> +> So I wonder if there's a better way. Such as making po, at scan time, +> re-run the scan hooks, passing them modified content (either converted +> from po to mdwn or with the escaped stuff cheaply de-escaped). (Of +> course the scan hook would need to avoid calling itself!) +> +> (This doesn't need to block the merge, but I hope it can be addressed +> eventually..) +> +> --[[Joey]] +>> +>> I'll think about it soon. +>> +>> --[[intrigeri]] +>> +>>> Did you get a chance to? --[[Joey]] + + * As discussed at [[todo/l10n]] the templates needs to be translatable too. They + should be treated properly by po4a using the markdown option - at least with my + later patches in [bug#530574](http://bugs.debian.org/530574)) applied. + + * It seems to me that the po plugin (and possibly other parts of ikiwiki) wrongly + uses gettext. As I understand it, gettext (as used currently in ikiwiki) always + lookup a single language, That might make sense for a single-language site, but + multilingual sites should emit all strings targeted at the web output in each own + language. + + So generally the system language (used for e.g. compile warnings) should be separated + from both master language and slave languages. + + Preferrably the gettext subroutine could be extended to pass locale as optional + secondary parameter overriding the default locale (for messages like "N/A" as + percentage in po plugin). Alternatively (with above mentioned template support) + all such strings could be externalized as templates that can then be localized. + +# Robustness tests + +### Enabling/disabling the plugin + +* enabling the plugin with `po_translatable_pages` set to blacklist: **OK** +* enabling the plugin with `po_translatable_pages` set to whitelist: **OK** +* enabling the plugin without `po_translatable_pages` set: **OK** +* disabling the plugin: **OK** + +### Changing the plugin config + +* adding existing pages to `po_translatable_pages`: **OK** +* removing existing pages from `po_translatable_pages`: **OK** +* adding a language to `po_slave_languages`: **OK** +* removing a language from `po_slave_languages`: **OK** +* changing `po_master_language`: **OK** +* replacing `po_master_language` with a language previously part of + `po_slave_languages`: needs two rebuilds, but **OK** (this is quite + a perverse test actually) + +### Creating/deleting/renaming pages + +All cases of master/slave page creation/deletion/rename, both via RCS +and via CGI, have been tested. + +### Misc + +* general test with `usedirs` disabled: **OK** +* general test with `indexpages` enabled: **not OK** +* general test with `po_link_to=default` with `userdirs` enabled: **OK** +* general test with `po_link_to=default` with `userdirs` disabled: **OK** + +Duplicate %links ? +------------------ + +I notice code in the scan hook that seems to assume +that %links will accumulate duplicate links for a page. +That used to be so, but the bug was fixed. Does this mean +that po might be replacing the only link on a page, in error? +--[[Joey]] + +> It would replace it. The only problematic case is when another +> plugin has its own reasons, in its `scan` hook, to add a page +> that is already there to `$links{$page}`. This other plugin's +> effect might then be changed by po's `scan` hook... which could +> be either good (better overall l10n) or bad (break the other +> plugin's goal). --[[intrigeri]] + +>> Right.. well, the cases where links are added is very small. +>> Grepping for `add_link`, it's just done by link, camelcase, meta, and +>> tag. All of these are supposed to work just link regular links +>> so I'd think that is ok. We could probably remove the currently scary +>> comment about only wanting to change the first link. --[[Joey]] + +>>> Commit 3c2bffe21b91684 in my po branch does this. --[[intrigeri]] +>>>> Cherry-picked --[[Joey]]