Module talk:Flags/LocaleData Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module_talk:Flags/LocaleData

Hi Sannita, thank you very much for your help! One question, why have you added the names in Spanish to the flags of Spain? Here at the English Wikipedia they are not needed, they should be added in the Spanish Wikipedia if they want to try this template. Italian Wikipedia would need to have the Italian translations, etc. I'd prefer to keep this list without any translations, so every other language can just copy the list and start translating the empty strings.--QuimGil (talk) 16:18, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Trying to read your mind, forgive me if I'm wrong.  :) Adding an array of translations for each entry in this master template is not a bad idea! In principle, at least. Requires a bit more thought. First, those translations would need to identify their language, so the template knows where to search: "if I'm at it. then search through it: labels only". Otherwise things might break (as it happened with the Valencia Community flag after your edits) or wrong flags might be shown (if it turns out that some region in a language has the same name of some other region in another language, no idea if such combination exists but with hundreds of flags and languages the possibility exists). But then... how would these translations be maintained? If all translations are handled in the master then editors of other projects would need to come back always here for new updates. Wouldn't it make more sense that each Wikipedia is taken as reference for each language? Who else apart from it. projects need the Italian translations? It is more natural for it.editors to work and discuss their translations in their language at it.wikipedia...--QuimGil (talk) 16:43, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm thinking that perhaps it would be better to organize the data per countries, following the structure of Category:Country data templates. This is how the canonical information is organized now and this is how the maintainers are used to find it. The difference will still be that instead of having to go through hundreds of subtemplates everything will be located in a single file. Although this might have its problems too... We'll see, by now it's fine.--QuimGil (talk) 05:36, 9 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have started doing this for Afghanistan. Let's see how it goes.--QuimGil (talk) 22:18, 13 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It makes definitely sense to organize the data by countries, adding the subdivisions. The only doubt I have is whether to add the 2 & 3 letter codes or leave them in tables apart underneath. All countries have them and this way we save a bit of noise in the upper part of this crowded file.--QuimGil (talk) 06:49, 21 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The more I think the more I believe that this module should be called e.g. FlagsData and be the English file, with no translations, and then have a 4rth module FlagTranslations where each project could add their own translations. This way all projects copying the Template:Flagicon, Module:FlagiconLua and Module:FlagsData would have instantly and always a fully functional and fully compatible English set (good for copying articles from en.wiki with plenti of flag templates). They would only touch these 3 files to sync them with upstream, and they could be well protected. Then the 4th for localization would have only a skeleton with instructions, and there the editors would add all their translations. The access to this module could be a bit more relaxed if needed, and the risk of breaking the core English files by mistake would be minimum.--QuimGil (talk) 06:46, 21 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]