[OSM-talk] Multilingual maps demo

[Jochen Topf]

On Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 03:42:42PM +0000, Pierre Béland wrote:
> This is very interesting more particulary in areas of the world were we do not recognize the alphabets.
> 
> I tried it in Syria were default names are in arabic. If there is a correspondance for the language I select it is ok. Otherwise, the default name is kept. And  there are many areas around the world were we are analphabets not knowing the characters.
> 
> This brings the concept of languages proximity and establishing a priority in selecting language to show when there is no name for your selected language. For instance, if french or italian or spanish is not available, english should be showed before arabic, russian, etc. if it is in the list of names.

Thats why in this demo you can choose a list of languages. So when you enter
"fr,it,es,en" in the field, those languages are tried in turn before the
standard "name" tag is tried.

This is obviously too complicated for everyday use, so for a real map
application we have to find a different way, for instance using the browser
preferences or having a hardcoded list of languages that are similar to
others or so. Unfortunately using such a list can also be quite confusing
if the user isn't aware of it. Suggestions welcome.

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  http://www.remote.org/jochen/  +49-721-388298