Hi, Dave, Thanks for the reply, please see below for more information: Dave Miner wrote:
>> The following are some options of the localization packages >> installation: >> >> 1. Current solution, only C locale will be installed unless you >> choose one of the big rules language as the installation language or >> manually check GEOs from customized install. >> 2. Install all locales by default, inform customers to deselect some >> only if the disk space is limited >> 3. Separate locale enabling packages from pure translation packages >> and install all locale enabling packages by default, and install >> other translation packages by manually selection during installation, >> but this should be clearly explained to customers before they choose >> "Default Install" or "Customize Install". >> 4. Provide downloadable, easily installable and removable locale >> patches or packages so that customers can add/remove locales easily. >> >> Most Linux distros are using the 2nd option, but I prefer the 3rd >> and also the 4th :-) >> > > Clearly there's dissatisfaction with the current solution, so we'll > just rule out #1 right off the bat :-). > > #2 is attractive, in that it's similar to the proposed answer to the > driver problem - you may not know you need it until much later, and > then having to hunt around for the right one is a painful experience, > so let's just not make you do it. I'd guess it's the simplest in some > ways. Right, it's the simplest way :-). Oops, I should change the #2 to the following since all of the locales will also be installed in #3 by default: 2. Install all localization packages by default, inform customers to deselect some only if the disk space is limited One problem is you will get translated GUI, error messages and online help if you login to some locales to do some i18n testing. This is not what most of the English speaking developers would like to see if they are only doing some i18n testing for their software products. Another problem is unless the installed Solaris is something like a SunRay server for many users speaking different languages from a multinational company, usually it's not necessary to install the translations of all languages :-) > > I'm not sure what the engineering implications for #3 or #4 are (how > much restructuring of existing packages, etc.), The package separation for #3 has already been done in Solaris. Basic locale enabling packages (locale enabling, minimum fonts, input methods, iconv, X11) are in Solaris Software CD 1 for CD based installation purpose, a few are in CD 2, most of the other localization packages ( extra fonts, input methods and pure translations, etc.) are in the Languages CD. (Document translations are in separate docs CDs) We are planning on the downloadable locales for #4, but not a lot progress so far. We need to work together with installation team and also CNS team to decide the format and how to release those downloadable packages. > if you can elaborate on that it would be helpful. I also don't have > the stats for the amount of disk space that #2 consumes vs. what might > be saved by the other alternatives; if you have some rough guesses, > that would be useful data, too. The current size of all localization files are about 900MB after installation, the translation packages are about 30MB for each of the 9 big rules languages, so it's about 900MB extra disk space for #2 and 630MB (900MB - 9*30MB) for #3 where only locale enabling packages are installed by default. And I believe more and more locales and translations will be added into OpenSolaris very soon :-) What can be saved in #3 is not only the disk space which I think is not so significant now, but also the installation time because there are about 50 or more translation packages for each big rules language :-) Thanks, Brian > > Dave > _______________________________________________ > install-discuss mailing list > install-discuss at opensolaris.org > http://opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/install-discuss
