Yesterday’s post described an important development project currently being undertaken by the PSF called Warehouse. This will redevelop and improve the Python Package Index, PyPI. I wanted to let you know about a particular issue that the developers are currently trying to solve–that of translation into languages other than English.
Yesterday, Donald Stufft wrote to the PSF community mailing list, soliciting help from Pythonistas with experience and knowledge in non-English coding, translating, teaching, or other relevant expertise.
The desire is to support translations of the PyPI UI (user interface). Most, but not all, PyPI content is in English, which typically isn’t and shouldn’t be a problem. But the UI aspires to be
more welcoming to folks who either are not native English speakers, or may not speak English at all.
The current translation engine for PyPI is L20n.js, but the drawback is that this client-side engine only supports more modern
evergreenbrowsers–those which continually and automatically update. There may be users who have older browsers, especially in non-English speaking parts of the world.
One possible solution is to write a server-side implementation of L20n, i.e., to port it to Python. But this solution would involve taking development time away from Warehouse itself, as well as losing some beneficial features of client-side translation. Another possibility is to switch to Gettext, which PyPI had been using previously, but this solution is also considered less than ideal.
If you can help with this issue, or would like to be better informed, please visit:
I would love to hear from readers. Please send feedback, comments, or blog ideas to me at msushi@gnosis.cx.