Documentation mixes up the terms "internationalization" and "localization"

[jdetaeye]

Both terms have a distinct meaning (see eg ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization):
Internationalization is the process of designing a software application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without engineering changes.
Localization is the process of adapting software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating text.

The django documentation on "internationalization" doesn't make such a distinction and mixes both.

[jdetaeye]

If the ticket is accepted, I am more than willing to submit a documentation patch.

Not sure how that'ld work out with the documentation refactoring, which I understood is ongoing...

[Simon Greenhill]

We're perfectionists (with deadlines), so we should get it right.

[jdetaeye]

Documentation update

[Malcolm Tredinnick]

Although there is some confusion in that document, this patch doesn't make it all that much better unfortunately. For example, the "three step" section is actually internationalisation in the first step and localisation in the next two, not all internationalising or all localising (marking up strings for translation is internationalisation; it requires no translation skills or locale knowledge). Similarly, the i18n.txt does cover internationalisation, since it talks about things like using the ugettext family of functions (again, not part of the localisation step).

However, your greater point is well taken. There is indeed some confusion in there and separating out the internationalisation process (the developer side) from the translator side from the third, user side of things is one of the reasons I'm about to pull that document apart. So I'll take close this ticket when that's merged.

[Ramiro Morales]

See also #10260

[Ramiro Morales]

Fixed in r12440 (trunk pre-1.2) and r12449 (1.1.X branch).