Over the last few weeks we have maintained a healthy state of GNOME 2.22 translation to Arabic, thanks to Anas Husseini, Abou Manal, Ahmad Farghal, Osama Khayat and Khaled Hosny. Currently we have 95% done and we are at the third spot. Detailed statistics are listed below, and here is a link to the official GNOME statistics:

http://l10n.gnome.org/releases/gnome-2-22
The new modules for the next release have been settled, and the strings are more or less finalised, except for a few changes in the future. So, time to switch our focus to this release and get it done as soon as possible.

I have been quiet busy in the last few week with fixing various RTL and Arabic bugs in GNOME. Expect a few fixes in the next release. I will continue on this work so unfortunately I won’t have much time for translation.

It would be very good if we could complete this release as soon as possible. I would like to dedicate the last 2 weeks before the release to strict Quality Assurance and Translation Revision. I have built the whole new GNOME from sources and so I expect to test and review most translations.

Please feel free to assign yourself any of the uncompleted packages in this list, and let me know what you have taken.

* Translated    39311 95.42%
* Fuzzy          1271 3.09%
* Untranslated    615 1.49%

* Total         41197
* To be done     1886 4.58%

Incomplete Packages
--------------------
Package                 Translated Fuzzy Untranslated
eel                       30         0    1
libgnomekbd               49         0    1
nautilus                1161         1    0
metacity                 514         1    2
gnome-applets-locations 4355         3    0
gnome-terminal           483         3    0
gnome-desktop             65         0    5
gnome-applets            939         5    0
epiphany                 909         5    1
gnome-session            122         6    1
gtk -properties         1501         6    1
gnome-volume-manager     196         8    0
evince                   287         3    6
gtk-engines               32         4    6
cheese                    45         5    5
file-roller              249         7    3
sound-juicer             156         8    6
gnome-build              110         7   10
gnome-system-tools       231        11    6
evolution-data-server   1026        14    3
gtk                      908        16    1
gnome-utils              723        10    9
gnome-system-monitor     210         8   12
vino                      84         8   12
ekiga                    632        11   10
gconf                    453        24    0
eog                      245         8   17
gnome-keyring             59        16   15
totem                    426        22    9
tomboy                   355        24    9
gnome-power-manager      443        36    3
deskbar-applet           186        16   24
libgnome                 215        40    0
seahorse                 727        37    6
empathy                  266         7   37
gnome-control-center     829        41    9
gimmie                   122        40   13
yelp                     289        29   30
gdm                       66        51   15
gtksourceview            273        62   17
gdl                       17        48   33
gnome-games             1684        49   37
gcalctool                303        72   27
anjuta                  1853        80   32
orca                     924        63   52
glib                     215        56   68
gvfs                       0       149   29
evolution               4664       151   32

I have received many emails about Minbar’s prayer calculation method. First, one thing I would like to make sure everyone understands is that Minbar is not supposed to replace a real human Athan call. It is software, and it may have errors and bugs, so make really sure that you check your times with your local mosque and see if Minbar conforms with them. If they don’t, let me know.

Don’t forget to try to change the calculation method and see if the software produces correct times: you can change the calculation method in the second tab of the preferences dialog:

So far, the countries with the most problems are the far east countries: Indonesia and Malaysia. I have received many emails from these two countries. I would like to let you know that I acknowledge this problem and I will work on solving it. I take correct prayer times very seriously and will do my utmost to resolve it.

Minbar uses libitl for its prayer calculation. I have not written libitl, so I am planning to do a code overhaul and look at the correctness and authenticity of the implementation. This may take time, so I apologise for this in advance. In the mean time, feel free to always send me an email when you notice a calculation error; include in your report:

• Your city details: Altitude, Longitude, Latitude, name, country.
• Your country’s time zone.
• The times that Minbar gives you for your city.
• The date.
• Your country’s calculation method: if you know it.
• Your country’s Madhab.