Bug 543540

Not sure it is possible to get the language from the browser but I'll investigate it.

It's very easy to get the language from the browser:
    http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/HTRQ_Headers.html#z12

This is what I see in Firebug on my Firefox 3.5:

Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5

(In reply to comment #0)
> Description of problem:

Thanks, btw, for caring about the appearance and function of this page.  My comments are in that spirit.

> There are tens of drop-down lists to select the language for each of the many
> documents, for each of the formats. What is the point of that? 

This front-page was put up as a stop-gap until a new CMS can be rolled out to serve docs.fedoraproject.org.

The previous front page was just a list of a few documents that linked to by-version sub-pages with a long list of per-language documents.  To get to what you wanted to read, for example, the Fedora Installation Guide in Swedish, would require two or three clicks with confusing navigation along the way.

front page => install guide => version => language

By that comparison, this front page is a good improvement.  It is also considered temporary, so I'd be careful about putting too much more engineering in to it.

> Suggestions:
>   - there should be only one drop-down at the top of the page
>   - the drop-down should be initialized with the language inherited from the
> browser, or En if it can not be determined

What is your suggestion for when someone wants another language other than the one set in the browser?

If we are only presenting a single language, why have a drop down?  Why not just serve the list of per-browser-language documents?  Perhaps with a drop down menu to select another language.  (May not be possible with the current configuration, fwiw.)

> There is lots of useless manual manipulation that we ask from the user.  

It seems to be a stretch to refer to selecting one drop down item to be "lots of ... manipulation".  I think the real confusing thing is the sheer number of drop downs -- it is a bit frightening the first time you see it.

> What is your suggestion for when someone wants another language other than the
> one set in the browser?

As I said, just put _one_ drop-down at the top of the page. Have that dropdown use a decent default so we don't force most people to manipulate it. You get the best of both worlds:
  - for most people the default will work, so they don't have to bother with it
  - for the few where the default is off, they can easily select a different one

The default is easy to pick right. Just use the one that's being sent by the browser, and if that can't be detected, just pick English. This will work most of the time.

> If we are only presenting a single language, why have a drop down?  Why not
> just serve the list of per-browser-language documents?  Perhaps with a drop
> down menu to select another language.  (May not be possible with the current
> configuration, fwiw.)

Aren't we saying the same thing? 

> It seems to be a stretch to refer to selecting one drop down item to be "lots
> of ... manipulation".  I think the real confusing thing is the sheer number of
> drop downs -- it is a bit frightening the first time you see it.  

Well, right now you are forced to manipulate the dropdowns for each document/version you want to see. Mot to mention that just looking at it is overwhelming.

I believe this has been remedied.  Can you please verify this, please?

Yes, much better.