Re: [Tails-ux] Languages

Spencer:
>> Lunar:
>> The proposal contains a field to do quick search in the list of
>> languages using the keyboard. I think this is going to surprises some
>> users.
>>
>> Keyboard layout selection comes *after* selecting the language in the
>> current proposal. So at the point where they select the language, for
>> many of them, there's a chance that pressing keys will behave
>> differently from what is labeled on their keyboard.
>
> This is an issue. Logically, text language comes first so you can read,
> however, in our context, we could swap the order and have keyboard
> language first; this presents an increased reading challenge, as text is
> unreadable for a second step (though we do have icons for referential
> support). This isn't a block, though, since we should be using the
> cultural name for each language, so there's potentially limited
> interpretation needed (other than the Welcome text) until the text
> language is set.

As far as I can remember the OS installers I've used in the past all
asked to choose language before keyboard. Note that in our case the
search field should be an *option* for quick-search only. It should be
equally possible to select your favorite language without keyboard
interaction as it is today, from a longer list.

We anyway have to make some choice which has limitations in either case
for some people:

- Either language is first, and you might mistype some letter if you
have a Latin keyboard with a non-English layout or you might be unable
to quick-search for your language if you want a non-Latin language.
- Either keyboard is first, and people who don't know the word
"keyboard" or the name of their keyboard in English might not be able to
set it up properly.

Honestly, I wouldn't experiment much on this and leave the language
first as other installers do.

> Technically, though, I need an explanation. If we set keyboard language
> first, given that a kanji character is entered, say, in the search field
> for text language, what will be displayed? Is only display text
> affected with text language settings, or is input text included, because
> it is being displayed?

I have no idea.

> Also, is there a search field in the keyboard language settings? If so,
> do we need one?
>
>> A possible idea: have an index by first letter on top of the list
>> instead of a free-form field. But it's probably a bad idea as it's too
>> latin-centric.
>
> Good thought but we will benefit from being as international as
> possible, since Tails transcends borders. We could glyph this, as you
> suggest, in whatever the localized language is, should that be a
> function we include.

There were 73 languages supported by Debian Installer, does this sound
like a list that people can search through manually? Probably yes.