Re: UOF v2.0, the PRC national XML standard for Chinese Office documents--what to do with it in LibreOffice?

On 11/11/14 17:37, V Stuart Foote wrote:

> Abandon it and concede to provide no interoperability support for Chinese users?  

As things currently stand, I think it is safe to say, that were it not
for the Japanese contingent, CKJV support would be completely
unacceptable for everybody.

As it is, support for the Chinese writing system, and its users is fair
to middlin.

I don't like the idea of abandoning UOF, especially because Chinese is
the native writing system for fifth of the world's population.
OTOH, LibreOffice does not appear to have a Chinese language support
group that is able to contribute either code, or provide translations
for people who can code, to use.

###

I'm acutely aware of the issues involved in translating anything from
Chinese into, or from another language. This is one of the few languages
where people with people whose first language is Chinese, and have a PhD
in Chinese Language Study, routinely have half a dozen dictionaries on
hand, simply to know either how to write a familiar word, or obtain the
meaning of an unfamiliar glyph, or to figure out what a string of glyphs
_probably_ means. (I know several professors of Chinese in the United
States, that hire people to read Chinese language websites to them,
because that is faster, easier, and cheaper, than for them to spend the
time deciphering those websites. These professors have published
critical editions of Chinese texts in both English, and Chinese.)

###
Would it be possible for the Japanese group to provide translations of
those documents. (I am assuming that Sino-Japanese relations aren't
stuck in year 14 of the Hakuchi era.)

> Should filters be removed from core and repackaged as an extension to
externally provide document conversion?

An import only extension is probably the simplest/easiest short term
solution. (IIRC, import loses markup, but not content with export losing
both markup and content.)

For the medium term, write, as a user-installed extension:
* Import/Export UOF 1.0 filters;
* Export UOF 2.0 filters;

For the long term, write, as a user-installed extension:
* Import/Export 2.0 filters;

###

What happened to the Chinese language team?
zh.libreoffice.org is in English, even though that is not on the
"acceptable language list" of my browser.
nl.libreoffice.org is in Dutch, which is one of the languages on the
"acceptable language list".
ja.libreoffice.org is in Japanese, other than the English text that is
found on the bottom of the page.
(I just noticed that even on de.libreoffice.org, that text is in English!)

I know that due to RedOffice going out of business, their code
submissions could not be made. I was under the impression that OOo was
also working with other organizations for Chinese language support?

jonathon