Display language not set by Windows Language setting

• Aug 11, 2020 - 20:44
Reported version
3.5
Type
Wording/Translation
Frequency
Once
Severity
S3 - Major
Reproducibility
Always
Status
by design
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore

Steps:
1) In Windows Language Settings, make sure that both the Windows display language and the first preferred language are set to “English (United States)”
2) In Windows Region Settings, set Regional format to one that is different from the default; this has been tested both with “Chinese (Simplified, China)” and “German (Germany)”. (Apparently the “Country or region” setting doesn't matter; in any case it reproed with “Germany”.)
3) Start mu𝄐sescore.

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Observed:
mu𝄐sescore shows up in the language corresponding to the Regional format, which was selected in step 2 above. See attached “de-DE.png” and “zh-CN.png”.

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Expected:
The language of mu𝄐sescore should follow the Language settings (step 1 above), as is standard for all Windows apps. Preferably the first preferred language, but the Windows display language would also be a possible fix.

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Further interesting fact:
Curiously, in the case of de-DE regional settings, they also affect the standard dialog buttons whose text normally should be taken from the Windows display language. This is not the case for zh-CN regional settings. (See attached “de-DE Save dlg.png” and “zh-CN Save dlg.png”.)
This fact is only included for context; this is not part of this Issue. In any case, it would be a much less severe issue, since it is much easier for a user to understand or guess the limited set of Windows standard texts used in mu𝄐sescore.)

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Note:
Obviously, the user can prevent that error by selecting the Regional format for the language the user wants mu𝄐sescore to display in, but I hesitate to call that a workaround since it changes the behavior of all other Windows apps.

Attachment Size
Region.png 172.79 KB
de-DE.png 37.03 KB
de-DE Save dlg.png 6.01 KB
zh-CN.png 42.72 KB
zh-CN Save dlg.png 6.9 KB

Comments

• Sep 3, 2020 - 11:14

I checked that the behavior is exactly the same in MuseScore versions 3.2.3 and 3.4.2.
I recorded a video, take a look
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TMIqwipnoSKVoprlkFXgDQIizJ3dl71R/view?…
(better download and watch)

Tell me, on the example of what well-known Windows programs can I see the behavior that you expect?
(I tested several programs, they all behave differently)

I think there is no need to change the MuseScore behavior since it has been like this for a long time (or maybe has always been).
The display language of MuseScore can always be changed in MuseScore preferences.

Reply

• Sep 4, 2020 - 14:27
Status active ⇒ by design

Thanks, your last sentence provides the key to this issue. It also very likely explains why we experienced different behavior: I probably originally had the language in the settings set to System. I wasn't even aware of that setting. It's a bit odd that Musescore would reinvent the wheel and build in a separate, proprietary functionality for Language settings when that is already fully supplied by the operating system, but I agree with your assessment that there's no need to change that now.

I did invest a lot of time in this until I read your last sentence. It's largely obsolete now, but for the record I'm attaching what I did as #308978.txt.

Also, I would like to answer your question, even though it's moot now: I see the expected behavior already in Блокнот, as well as in the regional settings dialog itself (as you can see from the attached screenshot Блокнот,png). Both remain in Russian, even after setting Текущий формат to Английский (США). That is what ideally should happen in Musescore when you set the language to System.

Attachment Size
Блокнот.png 40.13 KB
#308978.txt 2.47 KB

Reply

• Sep 4, 2020 - 15:04

Right.
As far as I can see, most programs using Qt behave this way.
I did some research on the possibilities of Qt and found no way to get a list of preferred languages.
We can get the current locale - this is the value selected in the Region.
We can get a list of installed UI languages ​​(their order does not depend on the order in preferred languages)
We can get the currently selected language for keyboard input.

Reply

• Sep 4, 2020 - 15:36
Regression Yes ⇒ No

I see; for them that makes sense since they're accommodating cross-platform applications. Still, I think they could make that optional, but that's a moot question.

I'm glad we got it all worked out. Kind regards!

Reply