Re: Bug#98549: Packages with diffrent language descriptions.. proposition
On 24 May 2001, Brian May wrote:
> >>>>> "Arthur" == Arthur Korn <arthur@korn.ch> writes:
>
> Arthur> Hmm, would Packages, Packages-pl, ... be feasible?
>
> Or just do what I suggested some time ago. Split the Packages file up, eg:
>
> Packages.gz
> Descriptions-en.gz
>
> which means you can download the latest list of Packages without
> downloading the entire list of descriptions again (which typically are
> static).
>
> It also means you can download multiple languages, without downloading
> the other package information multiple times, too.
I for one support this, but two remarks. (Maybe already covered in earlier
discussions; don't have time to check)
1. Descriptions are HUGE, 36000+ lines and growing. I don't expect that any
translation will keep up ever, so it might be a good idea to continue
to have English descriptions in Packages.gz as default/fallback language
but all other languages in a separate file.
2. I don't think it's a good idea to have translated descriptions in the .deb
files themselves. Even with a few translation projects that would mean an
enormous amount of uploads of packages with just a new/updated
translation of the description. It would probably be wisest to move the
description translation stuff to a separate (e.g. web based?) interface,
which creates/maintains a separate database that's used by the daily
archive updater to generate new Descriptions-<lang>.gz files.
Regards,
Anne Bezemer
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