Bug#215205: language-chooser: Language order shouldn't be alphabetical

[Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>]

On Sat, Oct 11, 2003 at 05:02:50PM +0200, Bernd Eckenfels wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 11, 2003 at 03:18:46PM +0200, Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña wrote:
> > From my point of view, languagechooser should base its ordering in a very 
> > simple metric
> 
> Alphabetic on eighter the locale or the official language name for
> default debian.

Sounds OK (but what is eighter?).

> If debian is rebranded and possible localized, it makes sense for them to
> reorder those. In that case the package could support this. But it is no
> requirement for the stock distribution.
> 
> > So, in the event of the debian-installer being available fully-translated 
> > in the following languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese 
> > and Japanese, the order would be: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, 
> > German, French.
> 
> It is a good idea to list for the installer only the languages which
> are available.  In that case they fix on one screen.
> 
> Personally I hate it if lists are not sorted in an easy to scan way.
> Ordering items in a most-preferred way only works if it is a short list of
> items, separated by the rest (which needs to be sorted alphabetically)

Please do not forget default "C" environment is (basically) English.
Others are all optional feature.

> And this will not increase the combined "scan time" from all users, because
> you can much easier go down a list of entries where you know you can skip
> hundreds (by first letter) compared to a list which you have to go down and
> match entry by entry.

Realistic solution of situation shall be follows:

1.  The list order shall be easily configurable to address localized
    distribution with following type of information.
      * Priority order list
      * Local limitation list
2.  Debian (official) should ship language chooser with:
      * Priority order list: C
        List C (en_US) as top and the rest alphabetically listed
      * Local limitation list: none
        All available locale listed.
3.  Localized Debian distribution may choose as follows:
   ASIA:
      * Priority order list: C, zh_CN, zh_TW
      * Local limitation list: C, zh_CN, zh_TW, ko_KR, ja_JP, fr_FR

   AMERICA:
      * Priority order list: C, en_US, fr_FR, es_MX, pt_BR
      * Local limitation list: none
   ...

Just a thoughts...