Internationalization(IME) and password field

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,
Another password question.

First a disclaimer - I'm not a native Asian person and therefore don't have any Asian language installed.

Now here is the question.
Suppose I'm writing a software that needs a password from the user. Also suppose the software will run on the computer where the IME is installed and the user will need to enter password using IME.

How will it work?
Will helper window for IME appear in order to complete the letter? Or user will continue typing the characters and nothing will display on the screen?
Presumably to simplify this GTK+ have a special style in their API, which will help developer define the field as a password and so the the extra window will display but only with the password character.

As I said I don't have any experience with that.

Thank you for any input.

[Arjay]

I believe the IME will post the UNICODE text to the control that has the focus (it doesn't care whether the control is a password edit box). Of course, you should test this out using the IME on a test program.

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,
But for the password field the input is not echoed.
But as I said I don't have anything IME related. I don't even know how to write a proper word.

It would be nice to hear anything from the Asian people if there are anyone present on the forum.

Thank you.

[Arjay]

But for the password field the input is not echoed.

What does this mean?

At any rate, shouldn't you install an IME (or create a VM with an IME) to do your own testing? I mean, sure someone (Asian or otherwise) could give you their opinion whether something will work or not, but wouldn't you want to verify it yourself?

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,
Sorry for a delay - been busy.
Of course I would love to install any IME language to verify how the program behaves. Problem is - I'm not a native speaker and won't know how to write with any of those languages.
I won't even have anybody who can help me to understand what I am writing. And since it is a password field I'd rather get a help from someone who knows a language to see what to type and how.

Thank you.

[Arjay]

Hi,
Sorry for a delay - been busy.
Of course I would love to install any IME language to verify how the program behaves. Problem is - I'm not a native speaker and won't know how to write with any of those languages.
I won't even have anybody who can help me to understand what I am writing. And since it is a password field I'd rather get a help from someone who knows a language to see what to type and how.

Thank you.

Have you heard of google translate? You type in a sentence in one language and it translates it into another language and you can even copy and paste the translated text.

That being said, do you think that all folks that test localization can speak the language they are testing? It's been my experience that most do not. If my experience is typical, then how do these folks do it?

[OneEyeMan]

Hi,

Have you heard of google translate? You type in a sentence in one language and it translates it into another language and you can even copy and paste the translated text.

As a non-native English person I not just heard about it but used it.
However, for password field I would very much prefer to type it rather than copy/paste.

That being said, do you think that all folks that test localization can speak the language they are testing? It's been my experience that most do not. If my experience is typical, then how do these folks do it?

Not according to my experience.
I was working for a company where translations were sent out to the country and they were sent back translated by the people who spoke natively.

Thank you.

[Arjay]

Not according to my experience.
I was working for a company where translations were sent out to the country and they were sent back translated by the people who spoke natively.

Sure, but text translation and testing localization is two different things. At that company was the application tested in the different languages after after the translations came back and were merged? Doesn't sound like it but this is where test automation comes into play and the test author doesn't need to be fluent to create the per language automation scripts.

At a company I worked for 23 years ago as an SDET, the on-shore dev and test team (of several hundred) was responsible for creating/testing the product in English and German. Very few of us spoke German, but yet the testing in DE got done nevertheless.

That was a big project and supported a large number of languages. Two separate divisions handled the testing of everything non-en/de - the PacRim test division handled all the Pacific Rim languages and a division in Ireland handled all the rest. Both divisions only had the man power to have a native speaker for only a very small portion of the languages that needed testing. Automation was written that covered all languages, however.

So..., the test cases for testing multiple language support for a single password text box pales in comparison from my perspective.

Hopefully, you'll get this figured out soon.