--- Muhammad Alkarouri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Red Hat Linux is a much used Linux that does not have Arabic support. > Various people are interested to make this happen, as mentioned in > http://www.linux-egypt.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1617 > and the feed back in this thread. > A project is set up in sourceforge at > http://sourceforge.net/projects/redhat-arabic/ > led by Mohamed Eldesoky, for the purpose.
Please read comments below with regard to the sf.net project. > What is needed in my opinion (well, Mohammed Sameer's opinion > somewhat altered ;) is, > 1. Arabic support for the Linux console I'm not sure you really need this - most (if not all) of the distros out there go into graphical mode right after boot (even upon install, etc). So I'm not sure this is a hard requirement; its nice to have sure, but not sure its really that needed. > 2. Good Arabic fonts Check out the newly created Khotot project (mirrors KACST's fonts as well as includes some that Arabeyes has been able to create/salvage -- note the collage sample pages to what they look like). We'll be trying to push that effort to get more fonts created and hosted, http://www.arabeyes.org/project.php?proj=Khotot > 3. The ability to read and write Arabic in KDE and GNOME (may be other > window managers later). I think that is native to those applications given the keyboard and locale files are included (which I'm assuming they are -- testing needs to happen to guarantee that fact). In my opinion, adding Arabic support to the distro means having the following abilities, a. Able to install a distribution using Arabic instructions b. Able to see a native Arabized Graphical User Interface Environment c. Able to Read/Write/Print Arabic utilizing various applications 'a' & 'b' would fall into the localization camp (ie. translating various .pot/po files to include translations of strings) whereas 'c' would be more a software development type of an effort. 'b' is well on its way -- Gnome-2.2 is fully translated, KDE has bits and pieces done and is a work in progress, etc. 'c' is well on its way (vim, mlterm, katoob, duali, mozilla, openoffice, etc) all function properly (or semi-properly) with Arabic. What needs to happen here is to make sure the list of applications that we deem appropriate and ready for inclusion along with their version numbers are included (for instance - is katoob included, if not why not; if duali's author thinks duali is ready, then we should push for its inclusion, etc). So this becomes a spreadsheet/matrix type of a process; you list all the applications, their version numbers, whether its author says (or users testify) its ready or not for inclusion and whether the distro owners (redhat in this instance) have included it or not. This spreadsheet/table should reside in open view on Arabeyes' distro page (it will also serve as a starting point for those looking to know which distro has a more complete offering of Arabic support and applications). This leaves us with 'a' -- and this is specific to each distro since its rather customized (I know mandrake's install strings and internal applications were being worked on, but as this work was outside of Arabeyes' domain (_very_ unfortunately), I'm not sure of its status and whether its still active or not, etc). http://www.mandrakelinux.com/l10n/teams.php3 http://www.mandrakelinux.com/l10n/ar.php3 This topic/area needs to be talked about and brought forward for discussion on the 'doc' list since it will be translation related. > This can be be done by (in my opinion): > 1. Packaging akka satisfactorily enough for Red Hat to include in their > distro. (they have Canna for Japanese, so the concept isn't new). > 2. Beta testing for severn and strongly requesting including full Arabic > support already available in KDE and Gnome, reporting any bugs. > 3. Ditto (the same) for vi and may be other packages (tetex?) > 4. Checking that the Red Hat package redhat-configure-language works > well with Arabic (it didn't till rh9), and may be helping in making it > do so. > 5. Checking anaconda (the red hat installer) for good configuration of > Arabic at startup. > 6. Encourage the redhat project to upgrade openoffice to 1.1 (which I > think they would do if they got a 1.1 version not beta,RC). > > I would like to have as much suggestions on these as possible on the > following couple of days, and I would like to encourage as much people > as possible to beat test severn (including myself).. > > Oh, and by the way, what I would do is: > - join the redhat-arabic project at source forge (hope it's working, > they have 0% activity now) and may be encourage some coordination with > arabeyes I highly recommend you forgo that sf.net page (history has shown that the intent is there but the execution won't happen - I think you'd get more accomplished under the Arabeyes umbrella). I highly suggest you use Arabeyes and its pull (we'll back you in terms of putting pressure where pressure is needed, etc). I also recommend you can use Arabeyes' distro page (that's what its there for) for this effort, http://www.arabeyes.org/project.php?proj=Distro to note all relevant info from logs, documents, action items, etc. Let me know if you'd like to go this route. > - for the current days pursue akka working and packaging Without proper commitment from those that have had a hand in this in the past (Chahine, M.Elzubeir, S.AlBahra) this might be a more difficult task than initially imagined (I'm not discouraging you, but rather trying to encourage the old timers :-). In short, I'm not sure Akka's contributors would even go so far as to say its ready to be included into a distro (I'm sure I'm out of line in saying this as I've never contributed to Akka, but that's my gut feeling from all that I've heard from various people about needing to rewrite Akka and/or using the Farsi code, etc). > - have a weekly update for this mailing list on the situation so far, > if you encouraged me to do so Absolutely and also update the distro page (we can work offline on how to do that - maybe start the log entries on that page with [RedHat] or ... it'll require Haydar do the same for his entries - [HaydarLinux] or similar) > - beta test severn Yup, this is key and beyond shear testing, I would also recommend you make it simple for people to help you in this endeavor. In other words, if there are bugs to be fixed and you require votes, post the URL links here and tell people what to do. Or if you require emails to be sent to various individuals (to pressure them or to show them our seriousness), also post that info and tell us what to do (make sure to outline the steps to insure a larger number of participants). As a community, we all have to help each other out and this medium is the perfect forum for that. I HIGHLY recommend you move these emails and discussions away from the 'developer' list and onto the 'general' list unless you have specific coding issues (like Akka or a new application, etc). Let's try to stick to the pre-determined segregation of the lists (doc - for translation, developer - for coding and general for all else) Salam. - Nadim __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Developer mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/developer
