User docs: Remove flags, exchange for 2/3 letter language ISO code

[humdinger]

As PulkoMandy explained in the comments of #15311 (and ​Gerrit review1896, as languages don't map 1:1 to countries, the user documentation should use the 2/3 letter language ISO codes instead of flags in the language selector.

For this, the existing pages need to batch processed, I assume, and the template for new pages chnaged accordingly. I guess a job for a userguide tool admin...

[nielx]

Please see the attached html file for a proposal.

The icon used comes from the MIT-licensed ​IonIcons package. The initial suggestion is to also show language codes, but do those really mean something to readers?

I am open to better CSS/HTML. The font size 0.8 em works out to 14 px, but I don't want to hard code the size of the image to 14px, because an em is relative. Suggestions are welcome.

If the design is approved, I will start working it into the userguide translation tool.

[nielx]

Initial proposal for alternative without flags.

[humdinger]

I think you're probably right that we could do without language codes. Those do come in handy at times for the people maintaining the user guide, but they don't benefit the general user. A bit too geeky and mar the clean look.

I first though the doodly symbol was there by mistake or a drawing error. Then I remembered seeing it on wikipedia, for example. I'm not completely sure it's needed, but wouldn't mind either way.

Is it possible to have the background beneath the language name (and a few pixels to the left and right of it) a tiny bit brighter or darker? That may subtly suggest that this is an area that is worth inspecting. People may only happen on the language menu when their mouse strays accidentally there. It may be overlooked, now that there's no brightly coloured flag any more.

[nielx]

So I added some varieties:

• ​Initial proposal with the 'language' icon.
• ​Different background; this variety is not perfect, but it will give some idea of how a different background would look.
• ​Tests a dropdown triangle with the language icon, though the first one could be dropped.

[waddlesplash]

I thought the idea was to add ISO code "icons" instead of dropping the visual component altogether?

[nielx]

Replying to waddlesplash:

I thought the idea was to add ISO code "icons" instead of dropping the visual component altogether?

That was the initial suggestion, but I find it questionable whether those mean anything outside of the translation community. The ISO codes are not common on any other form of language or country selection in the outside world. From the perspective that Haiku is geared at all users, it would seem at odds to expose the code, which is essentially an internal identifier.

[humdinger]

I like the one wiht the dropdown triangle best. Maybe the triangle is a bit big, so we could either use a smaller fontsize for that and/or the outline version: ▽ (or a lighter colour, like dark grey instead of black?)

[nielx]

I have updated the variant with the triangle, changed the colour and removed the language icon.

See ​this variety here.

[humdinger]

Perfect!

[nielx]

Created as ​pull request on Github.

[nielx]

Userguide translator has been updated. New menu is already in the exports: ​https://i18n.haiku-os.org/userguide/export/docs/userguide/sv_SE/index.html

The next step would be to sync the docs to the repository, though I don't know how to do that.

[waddlesplash]

You will have to do a full export and then a manual rsync to a local repo and commit from there.

[nielx]

Done in hrev54018

[nielx]

Remove milestone from web and sys-admin tickets.