User:Liangent/wb-lang

Target: Language fallback feature for data stored in Wikibase.

Introduction

 * Every user may define it's language preference order
 * Every language has its system fallback order
 * Some languages can be derivated from other (prime & sister) languages automatically
 * Display what user loves best to the extent of what's available in current data

Reasons to do this

 * Someting readable is better than nothing (especially in small languages, whose users usually know some other languages too)
 * Language with heavy subtag / variant use (such as zh: zh-cn, zh-tw etc. which can be derivated from others automatically with LanguageConverter)
 * Wikibase / Wikidata is under development. Having this (fallback + conversion) included in design is better that patching it in adhoc ways later.

Technical notes

 * Caching issues need some care
 * Wikibase is under fast development. Talk with others to minimize merge conflicts

Timeline

 * After accepted: technical design
 * July, until mid-term: initial coding in a branch
 * After mid-term: test it, tweak when needed
 * Before final: have it merged into master
 * Deployment together with other part of Wikidata?

Links

 * Wikidata/Data model
 * Wikidata/Notes/Data model primer
 * Writing systems
 * Language in MediaWiki