i18n tutorial and User Guide criticisms

[tkilshaw]

I have read everything that the Servoy manuals say about internationalization. The Developers User Guide is particularly poor on explanation and examples, not just for i18n issues either. I goes into long, painful detail on how to click Cancel buttons in order to cancel things, and insists on giving screen shots showing the Cancel button to be click, the dialog that follows it, and so on. And it repeats that over and over wherever Cancel button can be clicked.

But it does not do a good job of explaining things and is very short of examples. A good user guide is nong on explanations and examples. This is 600 pages of cross-referenced tautologies.

Whenever I click on the i18n button in developer I see a bunch of keys, even when I have not set up an i18n table. Those keys are clearly for the Developer menus and other things related to the Developer program.

Those Servoy keys don't appear when I have created a new i18n table. That table is empty.

Some kind of tutorial that explains the why and wherefore and gives examples would be greatly appreciated. Questions that need answers include:

1) why do I see keys when the i18n button is clicked even if my solution/application has not defined either an i18n table or an i18n default table?

2) when I create a new i18n table and it is empty, do I need to add all of the Developer keys mentioned above?

3) When I add a language that the existing developer keys don't support do I need to add all of the Devloper keys first to my new 18n file before I can add their French versions or is there another place in Servoy where these can be added?

thanks,

Terry

[jcompagner]

1> Those are internal keys that can be reused if you like. They are not developer things (the developer is always english) but they are the default client things. Like menu's you see in the client.

2> Those default internal keys are always there. What you can do is override them and store you own version what you want to show the user there for the languages that we already provide. (so you can override some englisch values for specific keys if you want and those must be stored in the database)

3> Yes if you want to do French then you have to redefine those keys for the french language. You could start with the menu's and most visible things. I think currently we have Englisch, Dutch, Italian and German as defaults inside servoy. So others need to provide there own if you want menu's to go with youre language.

[mnorman]

Terry,

We appreciate your feedback on the Servoy documentation.

Unlike the documentation from too many other software programs,
we DO read your comments/suggestions/requests and, when applicable,
try to improve the Servoy documentation to make it even more useful for
you as a functional tool in the process of developing Servoy solutions.

But it does not do a good job of explaining things and is very short
of examples. A good user guide is nong on explanations and examples.
This is 600 pages of cross-referenced tautologies.

The main purpose for the Servoy Developer User's Guide is to provide a
set of instructions and to explain how to use Servoy Developer - focusing
on all aspects related to the user interface and user experience.

The tautologies, or repeated steps, are based on the possibility that a
Servoy developer may:
1) Read the Servoy Developer User's Guide from beginning to end.
2) Refer to a specific section of the Servoy Developer User's Guide.

In the first instance, repeated steps and cross references may be
more obvious; in the second instance, however, having a complete set of
steps to follow for any given section may be helpful.

What specific explanations and examples, by section, would be helpful for
you?

NOTE: You may also want to refer to the Servoy Developer Reference
Guide. This book (available from the online Servoy Store)
contains a description and example for every Servoy function and
runtime property.

_____________
Marc Norman
Servoy