ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[Kevin Godby <godbyk@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, all.

Since I won't be able to attend the meeting this weekend, I wanted to
write up a quick status report of what I've been up to.

I've been spending most of my time this week working on incorporating
the translations back into our manual compiling process.  I've updated
the Makefile so that you can compile the translations:"make
ubuntu-manual-LANG.pdf", where LANG is the language code [see the po/
dir for a list of possibilities], will compile that language's manual
with whatever translations are available.

A few things to note regarding the translations:  Since our manual is
being translated into so many varied languages (using varied
scripts/alphabets), I've switched to using XeLaTeX instead of pdfLaTeX
due to its better handling of Unicode.  Additionally, XeLaTeX gives us
access to a *much* wider range of typefaces, which will help a great
deal since we're supporting so many scripts.  The babel package is not
compatible with XeLaTeX, so we're using its successor: polyglossia.
Unfortunately, polyglossia is not included with the TeX Live 2007
packages that Ubuntu provides.  We can't install the polyglossia
package on its own because it requires a newer version of XeLaTeX than
what the Ubuntu packages provide.  So if you want to compile a
translated document, you will need to install TeX Live 2009 directly.
(See a previous email for an introduction on doing this.)

If you only wish to compile the primary American English version, you
may continue to do so without having to upgrade to TeX Live 2009
(though you will have to install the texlive-xetex Ubuntu package to
make everything happy).

I'm currently compiling each language's version of the manual and
working with the translators to fill in a few holes in the polyglossia
language coverage.  I've emailed some translators for help in filling
in this holes.

My next step is to find nice typefaces for each of the languages we're
supporting.  This hinges in part on working with the design team to
develop a tone and style of design for the manual so that it remains
consistent across all the languages.

After getting the typefaces lined up, I'll revisit the interior
design, clean it up and make it consist with the design direction
decided upon by the design team.

tl;dr: I've been working on compiling the translations. If you want to
compile the translations, you need to install TeX Live 2009. Next I'll
be getting typefaces for each language.  Then, working with the design
team, I'll clean up the whole design of the manual.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or
criticisms, feel free to email me at <godbyk@xxxxxxxxx> or contact me
on IRC in #ubuntu-manual (godbyk).

Thanks!

--Kevin

P.S. I've posted a few of the translated manuals online at
http://kevin.godby.org/private/ubuntu-manual/ if you want to take a
look.