Translate the program

[saihaze]

Nowadays programmers are all able to read and use English. However, translated UI can make them feel at home and boost their productivity.

Several frameworks are ready for implementing i18n. They are:

1. GNU gettext, wrapped by gettextrs.
2. Mozilla fluent.

With the help of i18n-embed crate, translation files of fluent can be embedded in the executable.

[saihaze]

COSMIC Settings can be an example using fluent and i18n-embed.

https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-settings

[kirawi]

IMO fluent is pretty dependency-heavy and feels overkill for Helix. If this is a feature the maintainers want, then maybe something from scratch or simpler would be preferred. I can't speak on their behalf though.

[pascalkuthe]

I don't think a translation should be included in core. It takes a lot of effort would eat up revive bandwidth (or rather how do you review at all) and I don't see a ton of value in a translation. It would also make support much harder since we would get bug reports of people that use translated versions that we don't understand

[saihaze]

I don't see a ton of value in a translation

Translated help messages and completion hints will be easier to read. Vim is translated.

It would also make support much harder since we would get bug reports of people that use translated versions that we don't understand

Translate the program is a kind of virtue, while asking for support with screen-shots of those translated strings provided is rather rude. Related rules can be added to README (like using LANG=en_US hx command for reports), and you can simply refuse those who don't follow this.

It takes a lot of effort would eat up revive bandwidth (or rather how do you review at all)

Sorry but I don't quite understand this. Take fluent as an example - string literals are replaced by message ids. Maybe having ids and contents in different files makes you feel disturbed?

I don't think a translation should be included in core.

Can this be an extension instead?

If this is a feature the maintainers want, then maybe something from scratch or simpler would be preferred.

Maybe we can add a Messages trait that includes message formatting functions? When a new translation starts, take Japanese, the translator should create a Japanese struct and implement the trait for it.

[gabrieleiro]

I'd love to contribute to translations for Portuguese if this gets implemented :)