I agree with all the articles Sergiu raised about the fact that flags does not fit perfectly with languages. In particular since I live in two countries that suffer of the misunderstanding. It is not rare that large international sites think that Belgium speaks only dutch, or Luxembourg speaks only german, while in fact both countries speaks three different languages.
On the other hand, I have the feeling there is common usage on the web that have created, at least for users, the habit to see graphical representation in the form of flags, that somehow relate with languages. The main problems stated by the article from Sergiu, are: 1) same language in multiple countries 2) different languages in the same country The importance of these problems depends on the choice of languages you propose and the way you localize the site as well. For example, if you have a simple european site with english, french and german localization, using the Union Jack flag for english, the French Tricolour for french, and the flag of Germany for german, would probably no be a problem at all and even appreciated by users to quickly get it. If you have a large international site, and you localize your information by region, having different translations for en-uk, en-us, en-au and more... using flags will also works quite well. You may even for a site using a single english localisation, either use a mix of the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes, or different localisation choice for each country all pointing to the same results. And for countries with different languages, you may use the same flag, translating the country name next to it into the appropriate language. So representing language by an icon is not a simple +1 ou -1 choice, it depends on situation, and IMO, we should propose it, and improve over time the flexibility to support the different situations properly. Now about the flags we may use, you may want to also have a look at the flags I have created, actually mainly for european countries (bg, cz, de, en, et, fr, hu, lt, mt, pl, ro, sl, us, cn, da, el, es, fi, ga, it, lv, nl, pt, sk, sv), that you may found in the bluebird skin folder on incubator. Here are some samples: http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/skin/skins/bluebird/languages/en.png http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/skin/skins/bluebird/languages/fr.png http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/skin/skins/bluebird/languages/ro.png http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/skin/skins/bluebird/languages/usuk.png These are all self-made, so clearly free to use for us, and I may as well produce more of them if ever needed, and at larger size also. Using circular form has the advantage to look less like pure flags, and also to allow less gaps between them, while having larger icons. BTW, the bluebirds skin provides choice of languages using these flags when in a multi-lingual wiki, you may test that on myxwiki.org. I am +1 to use some flags (I have a conflict of interest to choose which ones ;) ), provided we allow customization and these are not required. Thanks (and sorry for this finally quite long mail) On Fri, Nov 1, 2013 at 1:29 PM, Sergiu Dumitriu <[email protected]> wrote: > -1, flags should not be used for representing languages. > > http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-link-lang#flags > > > http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/2472/how-to-graphically-represent-a-language > > > http://www.enlaso.com/Language_Tech_Center/Articles/Using_Symbols_and_Icons_in_Localization.aspx > > > http://www.quora.com/Localization-and-Translation/Is-using-a-simplified-flag-of-Spain-a-neutral-way-to-indicate-Spanish-language-on-my-website > > And many many others. > > On 11/01/2013 03:36 AM, Marius Dumitru Florea wrote: > > Hi devs, > > > > In order to implement http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-9512 (display > > the flag icon and the language pretty name instead of the language > > code) I need to bundle a flag icon set in XE. The best option seems to > > be http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/flags/ . They say: > > > > "These flag icons are available for free use for any purpose with no > > requirement for attribution." > > > > So if no one objects I'm going to add the PNG set to > > xwiki-platform-web, in webapp/resources/icons/flags . It weights about > > 130KB. > > > > The alternative is to display only the language pretty name, but it's > > less nicer. > > > > Or maybe you know a better flag icon set. > > > > Thanks, > > Marius > > > -- > Sergiu Dumitriu > http://purl.org/net/sergiu > _______________________________________________ > devs mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs > -- Denis Gervalle SOFTEC sa - CEO _______________________________________________ devs mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
