Re: Preview of the i18n and l10n paper for Debcon6
Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org>
> I think that starting this debate is not the point. Most people in the
> Debian i18n community know Javier and myself and they perfectly know
> we do not push for English as the universal language: we just live
> with that fact, just like Debian does.
What fact? By most definitions of "universal", English is not the
universal language. It is just debian's current working language.
Please don't exaggerate that.
> Free software development is about being pragmatic....
Indeed, and pragmatic does not say "follow the sheep". If it
did, your argument would mean that everyone should use Microsoft
Windows rather than Debian. When I was the only English developer
on a French-speaking project, pragmatic was for me using French.
> I have been able to understand your message because I speak
> french. Javier probably could by using analogies between Esperanto,
> French and his mother tongue, Spanish....
>
> But what about others?
Most people will find Esperanto far faster to learn than English
and there are plentiful resources online like www.lernu.net
- if he can't make the message accurate in English and he's not
sure whether anyone will translate, including Esperanto too is
a pragmatic choice.
> So, we will maybe change this sentence slightly to explain that
> English is the de facto communication language in the world in general
> and Free Software more particularly. But that's nearly all what we'll do...
Just like Word is a de facto document "standard", eh?
I'm not even sure whether is the most common language for Free
Software development. What evidence is there for that?
I'm disappointed by this English-language advocacy intruding into
the discussion - and I'm English! Please reconsider.
Best wishes,
--
MJR/slef
Laux nur mia opinio: vidu http://people.debian.org/~mjr/
Bv sekvu http://www.uk.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct
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