[tbb-bugs] #26843 [Applications/Tor Browser]: TBA: Investigate how Mozilla Fennec provides localization

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#26843: TBA: Investigate how Mozilla Fennec provides localization
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 Reporter:  sysrqb                               |          Owner:  tbb-
                                                 |  team
     Type:  task                                 |         Status:  new
 Priority:  High                                 |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser             |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  tbb-mobile, TorBrowserTeam201811,    |  Actual Points:
  TBA-a2, GeorgKoppen201811                      |
Parent ID:  #26782                               |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by sysrqb):

 Okay. comment:7 is correct, but this becomes more complicated with Orbot.
 When we build a single-locale package, it replaces the localizable strings
 - meaning each English string that is localized is replaced with the
 localized string, so the English string is not available within the app.
 This is good - but it becomes more confusing.

 Because all the English strings are substituted with localized strings,
 the user cannot choose between the localized string and the English
 strings. This usually wouldn't be a problem, except within Fennec's
 preferences menu "English (United States)" is always shown. It seems
 Mozilla thought it important to [https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-
 browser.git/tree/toolkit/mozapps/installer/packager.mk?h=tor-
 browser-60.3.0esr-8.5-1#n178 hard-code] "en-US" as an option, even when it
 is not really available. sigh. But that is relatively easy to fix.

 The difficulty comes when Orbot is added into the app. The single-locale
 re-package process only replaces the Fennec strings, it doesn't touch the
 Orbot strings, so Orbot uses the system default locale when it starts.
 This isn't a problem if the user downloaded Tor Browser for the same
 locale as their system, but if the user has (as an example) en-US as their
 system default locale but downloads the es-ES localized Tor Browser, then
 it becomes weird. In this situation, Orbot shows everything in English and
 Tor Browser shows everything in es-ES. Orbot allows the user switch their
 locale, but this is confusing.

 I think we should add a mechanism within Orbot so it automatically chooses
 the correct locale when it starts. We can likely add this in the logic
 when Tor Browser runs Orbot the first time. I prefer having the user
 control their locale on the Tor Browser-side of the app, rather than the
 Orbot-side - but others can change my mind :)

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26843#comment:8>
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