I'm only concerned by the viablity and success of OpenOffice.org in India...
Charles, you make replying to e-mails such a difficult task :)
Quoting from an earlier mail of yours:
<quote>
I have a broader question, that goes beyond the ranting. Don't you think all the Indic languages represented here (and the ones to come) should get a common, informal structure, designed to help them and mutualize the work load?
</quote>
On a personal note, I take objection to the use of the term *rant* for what is a genuine concern from the OO.o team on the success of OO.o in India.
There are primarily many interlinked issues in this case. First, the efforts towards attempting a successful desktop migration (which is what is happening with great enthusiasm) requires that a *complete* office component should be presented. OpenOffice.org fits the bill nicely. Additionally, L10n of applications is proposed to be a way out in re-inforcing the immediate relevance of a FLOSS stack on the desktop.
L10n as we see it (and please do correct me if I am wrong) is working at 2 levels:
[1] Creation of a L10n framework which can be used for extension of a services infrastructure. eg http://grind.randomink.org
[2] Completion of application level L10n eg the various N-L projects in Indic languages in OO.o
The downside of this (or should I say these) is the fact that we have only a limited number of developers working on the projects. In fact the same set of people could be working on Gnome, KDE, Mozilla and OO.o. So *stories* don't get publicised.
For example, I would readily admit that http://bn.openoffice.org seems to be singularly bereft of activity. However, it stands to reason that even though file translation process has been hit by the recent lack of volunteers, testing of bugs against various builds have not. Thus, one of the immediate action points would be talk about them on the mailings lists that we have. Instead, sometimes we take the easy way out and blog them (at places like http://planet-india.randomink.org)
As regards the *informal structure* that you mention. I'm happy to note that we are fast on track towards creation of a consortium which is aimed at addressing such issues.
The informal nature causes a lot of pain as a good number of L10n resources are tied into Government bodies which for justified reasons wish to align themselves with bodies as opposed to bodies of persons interested in L10n.
Please, whenever you have news, let us know here on this list, and if you want them to be recorded and included in the official OpenOffice.org newsletter, post them on the [email protected]
/me readily agrees.
Warm regards Sankarshan
--
From Untruth, lead me to the Truth, From Darkness, Lead me towards the Light, From Death, Lead me to Life Eternal.
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