Gnucash 2.4.0 OSX Intel, OsX 10.5.8 - Language Selection does not work: [ExpurgateClean]

[John Ralls]

On Jan 12, 2011, at 7:30 AM, Achim Osthoff wrote:

> Am 12.01.11 06:52, schrieb John Ralls:
> 
> Hi John,
> 
>>> I upgraded from Gnucash 2.2.9 to 2.4.0 on an Intel-Mac running OsX 
>>> 10.5.8. The system language is English, but I would like to run
>>> GnuCash in German, as I have done with 2.2.9 in the past. However,
>>> irrespective of what language I chose in the Language pane in the
>>> Info-dialogue, Gnucash always starts in English.
>> 
>> Yes, it does. The OSX port follows the System Preferences language
>> list, subject to the available translations. OSX Applications do not
>> normally provide for using different languages from the system
>> language.
> 
> Quite the contrary, one of the historic strengths of OsX has been that
> it allowed its Applications to provide different language settings. I
> recommend you try the "Get Info" Command (Pressing Apple-i) on an
> application and you will realize the language pane allows you to set a
> different language for each application (provided they are multilingual
> at all). I attached a screenshot for Gnucash.
> As of 10.6.x Apple has changed this, but as stated in the Bug report,
> users of 10.5.x still should have the easy option there.
> 
>> However, you can trick it. Instead of having English at the top of
>> your language list, use one of the other Engllish entries, perhaps
>> British English, and put German second on the list. (Yes, this is a
>> bug, and yes, I'm going to fix it for 2.4.1 because it really ticks
>> off the English users. ) There's no language preference setting in
>> Gnucash preferences. What do you mean by the "Info-dialogue"?
> 
> That is a clear regression from what Gnucash used to offer to
> international users and as far as I can see from your answer there is no
> reason for this English-centric approach other than ignorance.


Please copy your replies to the list (use "Reply All", not "Reply").

Get off your high horse. It's not a bit English-centric.  The work-around will work just as well if you want your system in Portuguese and set Brazilian Portuguese as your primary language and German as your second. The bug is that Gnucash doesn't have a Brazilian Portuguese translation, just a plain Portuguese one (same for British English, though a bit different because there's no English translation at all) and the OSX language selection code still doesn't correctly convert the specialized language settings (like Brazilian Portuguese) to the generic locale. (Remember, Gnucash isn't a Mac application: It's a Gtk Application that I have ported to OSX.)

If there's a regression from 2.2.9, it's that you can't edit the launcher script anymore and set $LANG directly, ignoring the shell script which used to interrogate "defaults" for the system language setting. Gnucash never provided a language pane in "Get Info"... it's never responded to "Get Info" at all. I tested three Apple applications (Safari, Preview, and DVD Player); only one responded to command-I at all (DVD Player) and it didn't offer a Language pane. There may be some app that you have that does, but it's not an Apple feature.

Regards,
John Ralls