Re: Version numbers for translations (was: Re: debconf PO translations for the package pam
* Clytie Siddall <clytie@riverland.net.au> [2007-09-01]:
>
> On 01/09/2007, at 4:01 PM, Christian Perrier wrote:
>
> >>>>Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n"
> >>
> >>>What's the project version?
> >>
> >>These headers aren't very important to me, but to answer your
> >>question, this
> >>translation is for pam 0.99.7.1-4 (and above).
> >
> >
> >The policy I personnally use is to put the source package name
> >there...without the version.
> >
> >Using the version is, imho, not really useful as there's nothing to
> >tell us that having foo-1 while the package foo is at version 2 means
> >that the translation is outdated.
> >
> >Indeed, there is, in Debian debconf translation infrastructure,
> >nothing that uses the contents of "Project-Id-Version". I don't really
> >know what is the use of that field in other projects.
>
> I have requested developers include the version in update mails, for
> two reasons:
Me too. (Maybe not a very useful message, but I just wanted to make it
clear that Clytie isn't alone in wanting the version number.) I also
want it in the Project-Id-Version.
Hans
> 1. It means we can keep track of which version we have translated.
> For example, I can easily see if I have translated squid-x.x.x by
> scanning my debconf dir. ALL my debconf files (and hundreds of other
> translations) are named "vi.po". I need the package name to
> differentiate them, and the version name to show which version of
> that package I have translated.
>
> The date is not enough. We don't know when versions have been
> published, nor is the developer necessarily immediately familiar with
> the PO Creation Date. So versions are very often a quicker and more
> effective delimiter.
>
> I have also encountered Debian translations outside the Debian
> project (e.g. iso-codes at the TP). It is much more useful to be
> able to say, "I've translated iso_3166-1.3 at the TP, is that the
> current version?" when talking to the iso-codes maintainers, than to
> say, "I have an iso_3166 file with a creation date of XXX, is that
> the current version?"
>
> I haven't received any email (initial or responding) from developers
> in which they refer to the PO creation date. They all use the version
> number.
>
> Version numbers are also important in building and testing
> translations. ("I built version XXX last night, but it failed with
> this error message...", "I have two testing versions running
> concurrently, XXX and YYY.") PO creation dates are not useful in
> these situations.
>
>
> 2. The template for submitting translations to the BTS requests the
> package version number.
>
>
> So please continue to quote the package version number in the update
> email subject line. :)
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