Bug 13923 – WebKit breaks when language localizations are removed by Monolingual

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: INVALID
• Component: WebKit Misc.

[Kris Tilford]

I removed language localizations other than English using Monolingual 1.3.7. The absence of foreign localization caused WebKit to become non-function for certain functions, including filling in fields with text in Safari and also any modifications to file or folder names in Finder. When the System>Library>Frameworks>WebKit.framework folder was replaced with one containing the removed language localizations, both Safari & Finder returned to normal operation.

It seems like the language localizations in Webkit have some functionality that they shouldn't have?

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

Hi Kris, thanks for the bug report!

I'm curious why you expect software to continue working after removing bits and pieces of it (even if they are "just" localizations)?  Is it possible that Monolingual is going too far and lobotomizing WebKit?  Have you contacted the contributors to the Monolingual project to see if they know about this issue?

[Kris Tilford]

When you consider how many localizations are removed by Monolingual (over 1 GB in my case), and the fact that it appears that WebKit is practically the ONLY piece of broken software, obviously there is something amiss in the way WebKit is implementing language localizations. This is clearly a bug. It needs to be fixed.

[Mark Rowe (bdash)]

Fiddling with frameworks inside /System/Library/Frameworks is completely unsupported, and you do so at your own risk.  That said, every single build of WebKit done outside of the official Apple build process lacks localizations for languages other than English and they function perfectly.  This strongly suggests that whatever tool you used removed more than just localizations.