Default Language to System Default about wike HOT 7 CLOSED

Yes, that is the normal behavior of the application.

Setting the system language as default I think is not a good idea. As I said in another issue, many of the local wikipedias have very little content and their users will probably use English or other languages. I think it is better that the user chooses which language he wants to use for searches.

from wike.

I see - here some suggestions

• default to system language, if that language has more than a certain amount of articles - say 10^6
• always default to the system language and
• show the English Wikipedia article in case there is no article to be found in the system language

from wike.

• default to system language, if that language has more than a certain amount of articles - say 10^6

That would make it necessary to keep track of the number of articles that each wikipedia has. And there are almost 300!

• show the English Wikipedia article in case there is no article to be found in the system language

I believe that the behavior of an application should be predictable and consistent. It doesn't seem right to me that searches in one language return a result in a different one.

from wike.

That would make it necessary to keep track of the number of articles that each wikipedia has. And there are almost 300!

Fun fact: there's a wikipedia article ranking wikipedia articles per language with a list of those over 10^6 containing - apart from English - currently 17 languages with I'd say more than 500*10^6 native speakers.

I believe that the behavior of an application should be predictable and consistent. It doesn't seem right to me that searches in one language return a result in a different one.

I see and so I'm just brainstorming here for predictability.

What about making the support of n=#(m_1,...,m_n) languages a discoverable, explained and modifiable feature,
such that for a search query

• a localized no article was found in languages m_1,...,m_n results in case there is none to be found in any of the languages m_1,...,m_n
• the article in the first language is shown, if existent, i.e. the smallest p=1,...,m for which we find a corresponding article in language m_p.
• if in the latter case p>1, let the user know, that no results were found in the previous q=1,..., p-1 languages - perhaps by an intermediate redirection page or an in-app notification.

The default would be n=2 with

• m_1 = system default language
• m_2 = English

Personally I check wikipedias in the following order

• German = mother tongue
• Italian = second language, that I know best
• English as the next best thing.

Also the proposed default, i.e.

• First check in the system language
• Second check for English,

perhaps - I can't prove it - does reflect a substantial real world usage: check in your own language first and then in English, because English has most Wikipedia articles and is the most known secondary language on this planet.

from wike.

I think this is overcomplicating searches. In addition, each language is a different Wikipedia, so these would be separate searches and could cause performance issues.

Although it’s not the same, an option that could help those who use different languages would be the use of search prefixes, as they already exist in desktop searches.

This way you could default to the language you use the most and search in other languages by adding a prefix (eg -it to search in Italian).

from wike.

I think this is overcomplicating searches. In addition, each language is a different Wikipedia, so these would be separate searches and could cause performance issues.

Why would a second search in e.g. English, only if the first search in the default language, hamper performance?
Perhaps with an intermediate message:

A corresponding article was not found. Would you like to search in the [second language, default English] instead?

I really think, this could be a feature, not a bug.

Of course this should be configurable - being able to modify first and second language and to disable the second one altogether.

Although it’s not the same, an option that could help those who use different languages would be the use of search prefixes, as they already exist in desktop searches.

Oh, I didn't know, that was possible..

Please, just close this issue, if you think the proposal is not feasible or is otherwise unsuitable. I just made a suggestion here,
there's no bug.

Best

from wike.

Yes, I understand that you propose it as an improvement and I thank you for the suggestion. But in my opinion the search should be kept simple and predictable.

from wike.