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Re: Problem with translated Packages files...



On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 10:19:45PM +0200, Michael Bramer wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 12:33:17PM +0200, Richard Atterer wrote:
> > BTW, do these translated descriptions ever find their way into
> > source packages (where they belong IMHO)? The system doesn't
> > automatically file wishlist bugs, or does it?
> 
> no. But this is also not planned jet.
[snip]

You raise a lot of valid points for not trying to get the translations
into the packages. Obviously, this makes things much easier for you,
but I still think there are disadvantages in the long run:

- The translated info is separate from the source package. This
  violates our policy for all other package-related info; that
  *everything* related to the package should be in the source package.
  (BTW: Surely the "Description-de" can be put in debian/control?)

- By placing the translated packages on your homepage, you put them
  outside the official Debian mirror network, and also outside of what
  most regular Debian users are aware of. For the translations to be
  truly useful (and available to *all* the people who need them), they
  need to be *fully* integrated, contained on Debian CDs etc.

- If you continue providing the translations this way, your dpkg
  modifications will never go into the mainstream dpkg.

- Imagine you become less interested in this at one point - the
  translation project will just "fall asleep", become out-of-date and
  unusable, and all the translation work will have been in vain! IOW,
  you are a kind of "single point of failure" here! ;-)

WRT to the Packages files getting too big, this should be addressed by
putting per-language Packages files onto the FTP server - e.g. the
Packages-de.gz file would contain German descriptions where available,
and English ones for the other packages.

All in all, I think not trying to get the translations into packages
is dangerous. The current system is good to get the project up and
running, but you should plan ahead. Maybe it would make sense to
- file wishlist bugs
- set up an "overrides"-like mechanism for "Description", too. The
  usual overrides file already works on other parts of the control
  info; this may not be a lot of work.

Cheers,

  Richard

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