Internationalization

[iancoleman]

Inspired by the forum post Translations for equal opportunities, I started on a pull request for internationalization (i18n). As I got deeper into it, the size of the task seemed to warrant some discussion.

Looking for some feedback about the following:

• Choose a library
  • Should support interpolation and pluralization features at a minimum
  • Phrase file format - any specific thoughts? I prefer .po but am happy with any format that can be converted to / fro po. Most javascript i18n libraries use json format.
  • Automatic addition of new phrases to the phrase files is a nice-to-have.
  • I've been using i18n and like it. react-intl is also a contender.
  • Electron releases contain a 'locale' directory with .pak files, but I can't figure any way to hook into them. Seems like a native part of chromium.
  • Electron seems unopinionated about i18n, there's no 'standard' way to do it.
• Locate strings for translation
  • In the app
    • app/ui/components/*.js
    • app/server/message_contants.js
    • app/ui/constant.js
  • In third-party libraries
    • momentjs (eg 'X seconds ago')
    • zxcvbn (strings seems to be in to app/ui/components/register_acc_*_form.js)
  • Logging and technical/code strings can be left untranslated.
• Automatically detect the default language for the user - see electron app.getLocale()
• Implement a manual language override in the UI
  • The ui component
  • Re-rendering ui once selected
  • Caching the override so it doesn't have to be selected every time
• Implement some processes / documentation
  • for translators to contribute new translations
  • for developers adding new strings to the ui

Any comments or suggestions are most welcome. I'll keep working on the pull request but appreciate any additional thoughts.