On Fri, Aug 26, 2005 at 06:36:39PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Adam Heath writes ("Re: comments/string changes and issues with dpkg's messages"):
> > ohshite should really be for internal errors only. Things that "Should Not
> > Happen(tm)".
>
> This is totally 100% INcorrect. ohshite is used nearly everywhere for
> system call failures, eg `disk full'.
Well. I guess I should have read this mail before answering elsewhere in the
thread. Sorry.
If ohshit is not only for conditions which should never happen, if it
doesn't denote internal error, then yes, the messages should be translated.
But maybe the problem is that they should first get translated from geek to
regular english?
What about changing "cannot stat %s" to "cannot access %s"? I know it loses
a bit of information, but does it really matter?
Or, in lib/compat.c around line 50, do you really need to know which syscall
failed? If yes, what about changing
if (fseek(file,0,0))
ohshite(_("unable to rewind at start of vsnprintf"));
to
if (fseek(file,0,0))
ohshite(_("The %s system call failed in vsnprintf"), "fseek");
Again, there is a little loose of information here, but that's a great
improvement for the translators which don't have to be well versed into unix
system programing to achieve their task.
Bye, Mt.
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