Hello,
(I don't know if this is the right list, but given that unbranding is
often done to save l10n work, I'll try here)
I am currently updating the new template for dash. It (stripped down)
has the following change:
-However, since the Debian policy requires
+However, since the distribution policy
The first line is perfectly understandable to me, the second line
leaves me wondering. What is "the distribution policy" (Debian has
many, e.g. perl, python, ... and of course *the* Debian policy)[0]?
Oridinary users can search www.debian.org for "Debian policy" and read
it, probably in several languages. But if they do it for "policy of
the distribution" they find several, have to distinguish, maybe even
ask, ...
The reason for the change is clear: The first line above is only valid
for Debian, while the second version can be reused by other CDD and
Debian derivatives.
This, of course, has the nice effect that these distributions can reuse
all translations as well. And there is no easy solution to this
problem[1].
One basis of my work is the social contract (and I looked this up to
be sure):
Our priorities are our users and free software
Thus in my opinion getting the best system (including Debconf
messages) to *our* users is the priority. If, at the same time, the
messages can be general (e.g. avoiding terms like "Debconf") than this
is fine. Often the generalization yields other improvements (e.g. more
variables resulting in less strings, clearer and standard language,
...). But if we have to choose between good messages for Debian
users and lower quality ones for "everyone" I strongly favor good ones
for Debian users.
Opinions of other people involved here (as translators, users, and
maybe translators of CDD as well)?
Greetings
Helge
[0] In this case it might be meant as "some policy of your
distribution" but this would be still suboptimal.
[1] I quickly discussed this with Christian Perrier, who had run this
template through SMITH. Using a variable ${distribution} would not
work for two reasons:
a)For us, Debian policy is the term, but for the CDD "foobaz" it
might be "the central policy of foobaz".
b)Debian and foobaz might have different genders in different
languages and hence the surrounding grammer would require fixes.
Of course, I routinely meet cases like b) (or even worse split
sentences which do not work this way in German).
--
Dr. Helge Kreutzmann debian@helgefjell.de
Dipl.-Phys. http://www.helgefjell.de/debian.php
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