Making Meaning in a Multilingual World
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The document discusses the importance of supporting multilingualism in software development, particularly emphasizing the necessity of understanding Unicode and character sets. It highlights best practices for implementing multilingual systems, including examples like Drupal and its translation management tools, while cautioning against common pitfalls such as improper font usage and text in images. The document aims to provide practical guidance for developers to create inclusive and accessible digital experiences.
Making Meaning in a Multilingual World
- 1. Making meaning in a multilingual world Tristan Roddis, Cogapp MCN Minneapolis, November 2015 @tristan_roddis tristanr@cogapp.com
- 2. Why bother? Worldwide USA Lots more information in 2013 census data!
- 3. • Unicode! OK, I’m convinced. How? 'THUMBS UP SIGN' (U+1F44D) 'OK HAND SIGN' (U+1F44C)
- 4. Backend systems • TMS now fully multilingual • Multi Mimsy XG is too
- 5. Make sure you understand it • e.g. The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!) by Joel Spolsky
- 6. Make sure processing systems handle it too • e.g. Python 2 versus Python 3 • Create a Unicode “sandwich”
- 7. What about a CMS? • Drupal • Excellent multilingual support • Editing interface also translated • Even better in Drupal 8
- 9. Things to consider • Fallback language • Translation of categories and taxonomies • URL translation
- 10. Translation workflow • Drupal: Translation Management Tool • Third-party services, e.g. Lingotek • Transiflex - free for Open Source
- 11. Right-to-left text • <html dir=“rtl”> • ‏
- 12. Mixed directions
- 13. CSS • Use a pre-processor! • e.g. SASS, LESS
- 14. CSS
- 16. Arabic numbers • Western Arabic versus Eastern Arabic numerals • N.b. read left-to-right!
- 17. Images • Avoid text in images • Reverse image ordering
- 19. Exception: useful to control layout
- 20. Beware web fonts • Unsupported characters, especially for mixed language
- 23. Beware web fonts • Even transliteration can cause problems • E.g. → • See this article on diacritics
- 24. Beware fonts
- 25. Beware fonts
- 26. Beware fonts
- 27. So what do you get?
Editor's Notes
- #3: Worldwide: L1 speakers: 340 million L2 speakers: 510 million Total: 850 million Total population: 7.3bn =&gt; 12% total &lt; 5% first language USA: English: 80% Spanish: 12.4% and non-English speakers growing: 1 in 11 in 1980, 1 in 5 in 2013 Increase reach, nationally and internationally
- #5: TMS went Unicode in TMS2012
- #6: Article from 2003 buts still v.relevant
- #17: Also: Hijri Camara
- #20: Can composite images on kiosks to save installing fonts Also: Welsh singing aliens for the BBC
- #22: Mixed language in title Also n.b. reversed arrows due to reading direction Viewed in Chrome with Gotham Rounded web font
- #23: Same page, viewed in IE9
- #24: Spoiler: composed characters safer than decomposed
- #25: Brand guidelines specify a very stylized font
- #26: Test with native speakers: large blocks of text hard to read
- #27: So switch to standard Arial for web use