secondlife / secondlife/viewer

Localize Debug Settings comments per viewer language

Open
#5,955 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

A pull request for this has already been merged.

  • #5956 by @vedned — merged
enhancement stale
Dominant language
C++
Stars
299
Forks
146
Avg merge
1d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
88

Description

Summary

The Debug Settings panel (Advanced → Show Debug Settings) shows a help comment
for each setting. Today these comments are always in English, regardless of
the viewer language, because they come from app_settings/settings.xml at runtime.
This makes advanced configuration harder for non-English speakers.

Proposed solution

Load optional per-locale comment overrides from
skins/default/xui/{locale}/settings_comments.xml after the session language is
initialized, and apply them to existing controls in both Global and
PerAccount settings groups via LLControlVariable::setComment().

Fallback (required):

  • No file for the locale → keep English comments (current behavior).
  • Missing key in the file → keep English for that setting only.

This allows incremental translation without breaking untranslated locales.

Scope of initial implementation

  • C++ loader in LLAppViewer::loadLocalizedSettingsComments() (llappviewer.cpp / .h).
  • First complete translation: PT-BR
    • skins/default/xui/pt/settings_comments.xml (1,507 settings)
    • Complete remaining labels in skins/default/xui/pt/floater_settings_debug.xml

Rationale

  • Improves accessibility for Portuguese-speaking residents and maintainers.
  • Pattern is extensible to other locales without changing core settings XML.
  • English remains the source of truth; translations are overlays only.

How to verify

  1. Build and run the viewer.
  2. Set language to Português (Brasil) and restart if needed.
  3. Enable Preferences → Advanced → Show Advanced Menu.
  4. Open Advanced → Show Debug Settings.
  5. Confirm setting help text appears in Portuguese.
  6. Switch to a locale without settings_comments.xml → comments stay in English.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with LLAppViewer::loadLocalizedSettingsComments() in llappviewer.cpp and its declaration in llappviewer.h, then inspect skins/default/xui/pt/settings_comments.xml and floater_settings_debug.xml. Verify the Portuguese Debug Settings comments and remaining labels, while confirming locales without an override file and settings with missing keys retain English text.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
localization
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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