Translations waiting approval

[Philippe Verdy]

Jeroen Vermeulen wrote:
> In Launchpad, however, the assumption is that the starting language is
> U.S. English.

No! The starting language may also be any language (including British
English). Launchpad can support a separate translation for English when
needed.

It's up to each package maintainer to decide which is the start language to
translate, but it's true that most maintainers will find that it will be
easier for them to find translators if they create their root package in
English, but that's not absolutely required.

You may for example start a package in Russian, for helping the translation
of an open-source software whose usage will only be useful within Russia,
and may still want it to be translated in other languages for the many
languages of Russia, and for a very limited number of possible users, in
other languages.

Suppose you have an open-source software that will be used as a add-on for a
Russian service (or example a TV channels selector over its internet access,
with supplementary functions such as chats, forums, program selections...)
that can be subscribed or accessed only in Russia, what is the interest of
starting your package in English? Unless you want to extend later your
software later so that it can interact with other similar services hosted
elsewhere (and so, used with other TV channels bundles), but this may
require further developments if the service provider uses other standards on
its media server (notably for authenticating the subscriber, or allow him to
change his preferences, or billing it for VoD contents)...