[Rd] Internationalization questions

[John Fox]

Dear Brian,


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Prof Brian Ripley [mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk] 
> Sent: Monday, August 22, 2005 8:02 AM
> To: John Fox
> Cc: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: RE: [Rd] Internationalization questions
> 
> On Mon, 22 Aug 2005, John Fox wrote:
> 
> > Dear Brian,
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Prof Brian Ripley [mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk]
> >> Sent: 22 août 2005 01:47
> >> To: John Fox
> >> Cc: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
> >> Subject: Re: [Rd] Internationalization questions
> >>
> >> On Sun, 21 Aug 2005, John Fox wrote:
> >>
> >>> Dear R-devel list members:
> >>>
> >>> I have two internationalization questions, related to
> >> questions that I
> >>> posed previously. These pertain to Windows (I've tried 
> under Win XP 
> >>> but assume the issue is more general) and R 2.1.1 patched
> >> and 2.2.0 devel.
> >>>
> >>> (1) I've noticed that the standard Windows dialogs in R 
> -- whether 
> >>> initiated from the Rgui menus, from winDialog(), or from tcltk 
> >>> functions such as
> >>> tkmessageBox() -- do not have button labels translated when
> >> running in
> >>> a non-English locale. For example, when running in a 
> French locale, 
> >>> the command
> >>>
> >>>  winDialog(type="yesnocancel", message=gettext("Save workspace 
> >>> image?",
> >>> domain="RGui"))
> >>>
> >>> produces a dialog box with the message translated to
> >> "Sauver une image
> >>> de la session?", but the buttons still read "Yes", "No",
> >> and "Cancel".
> >>>
> >>> Is this the intended behaviour?  Is there any way to get 
> the button 
> >>> text translated? I've implemented a partial solution that uses a 
> >>> substitute for tkmessageBox(), but it is a bit awkward.
> >>
> >> You need to have Windows set to be in French dialogs, not just the 
> >> locale set to French.  This is on the second page of the Regional 
> >> settings doalogs in WinXP.  It is intended, as it makes 
> all Windows 
> >> dialogs work consistently.  (You can have different 
> settings on the 
> >> three pages, but not all combinations work successfully -- the 
> >> current rw-FAQ has some
> >> comments.)
> >>
> >
> > On my XP system, the tabs are (in order) Regional Options, 
> Languages, 
> > and Advanced. I have now set all three to "French (Canada)" -- 
> > including in the subdialog produced by the Details button under 
> > Languages, and rebooted. I still get English button labels.
> 
> At the bottom of the Languages tab there is a setting for 
> `menus and dialogs'.  I got a short list of languages, e.g. 
> 'francais' for that item. 
> You have to log out and log in again to make a change stick 
> (and it tells you that.)  That does work for me (and I tested 
> it again before answering you, and have also tested Italian 
> in the past).  I wonder if you have had to have used that 
> language in a past reboot to make this work ....
> 

There is no such setting on the Languages tab on my system (XP Pro Version
2002 SP2), even though I've now rebooted using French. The tab has only
"Text services and input languages" with a Details button, and "Supplemental
language support" with two check boxes for "Install files for complex script
etc." and "Install files for East Asian languages."

I'm reluctant to waste more of your time -- this is clearly a Windows issue
and not an R issue.

Thanks again for your help,
 John