Wikimedia Mobile engineering/imported/Mobile projects/Localization Roadmap

See also the Language Support Table

WORK IN PROGRESS

The ability to read and write Wikimedia content is a first premise, critical for those languages using scripts with poor or no commercial support. Installing fonts and language packs can be trickier or even impossible in certain mobile platforms or in certain devices distributed by certain operators. As a rule of thumb, cheaper devices have a more restricted expandability - and many times are those cheap devices the ones most commonly used by the speakers of those unsupported languages...

Language support includes many areas and actually some of the most demanding for a device vendor (e.g. all pre-installed apps localized in language XX) are not critical for Wikimedia projects. What really matters for us is:


 * Fonts supported in browser.
 * Possibility to install additional fonts.
 * Text input supported.
 * Possibility to install additional virtual keyboards.
 * Text prediction supported.
 * Possibility to install additional predicted languages.
 * Dictionaries supported.
 * Possibility to install additional dictionaries.

Unicode support
When a platform supports Unicode, we can send web fonts to a device and make texts readable. What we need to do is test the extend keyboards on plarforms react like keyboards on computers. When they do, the Narayam extension may allow for entering texts on a device.

The advantage of providing web fonts is that it obviates the need for people to install fonts. This will substantially increase our reach as most people do not want/dare to do things like installing fonts

When a platform does not support Unicode, we can not directly be read. When people can use Opera Mini, they can use this to get text rendered as graphics. This technology is also used by websites as the BBBC. When we are to support this, we need to be able to recognise the device as one such. It may be that we want to provide graphics in a size optimised for a screen.