Hi, On Saturday 16 August 2008, Christian Perrier wrote: > The attached patch adds more information about two topics: There were some typos in the patch Christian provided. Corrected patch is attached to this email. Hopefully it works correctly. Below are listed (as diff of the patches) the parts I changed. Giving a deadline to translators is always appreciated, so that they can organize their work. Please remember that some translation teams have a formalized translate/review process and a delay lower than 10 days is -considered as reasonable. A shorter delay puts too much pressure on translation +considered as unreasonable. A shorter delay puts too much pressure on translation teams and should be kept for very minor changes. The file only showing <emphasis>translated</emphasis> items will be used as the reference file. If there is none (which should not happen if you take care to properly interact with translators), you should use the file -with the most translated strings. +with the most translated strings. -Check that this change only applied to the place where you really intend -to make it and <emphasis role="strong">not</emphasis> in another place -where the original string is appropriate. That specifically applies to +Check that this change is only applied to the place where you really intend +to make it and <emphasis role="strong">not</emphasis> in any other place +where the original string is appropriate. This specifically applies to change in punctuation, for instance. You should avoid the use of first person (I will do this... or We recommend...). The computer is not a person and the Debconf templates do not -You should avoid the use of first person (<emphasis>I will do this...</emphasis> or <emphasis>We +You should avoid the use of first person (<emphasis>I will do this...</emphasis> or <emphasis>We recommend...</emphasis>). The computer is not a person and the Debconf templates do not speak for the Debian developers. You should use neutral construction. Those of you who already wrote scientific publications, just write your templates using English. -If a difference arises later (say, if upstream notices that he wasn't using -maximal compression in his original distribution and then -maximal comression in his original distribution and then -re-<command>gzip</command>s it), that's just too bad. Since there is no good -way to upload a new <literal>.orig.tar.gz</literal> for the same version, there is not even any -point in treating this situation as a bug. </para> </footnote> This makes it (I removed this last change because it's probably accidental. "compression" is the correct spelling.) Regards, Edu -- Esko Arajärvi - edu@iki.fi - +358-50-5446844 "Only idiots quote signatures." -Antti Kuntsi (at his .sig)
--- best-pkging-practices.dbk.old 2008-08-12 22:26:55.987121165 -0300 +++ best-pkging-practices.dbk 2008-08-16 20:58:23.320391002 -0300 @@ -755,30 +755,49 @@ </para> <para> Avoid changing templates too often. Changing templates text induces more work -to translators which will get their translation fuzzied. If you plan changes -to your original templates, please contact translators. Most active +to translators which will get their translation fuzzied. A fuzzy translation is +a string for which the original changed since it was translated, therefore +requiring some update by a translator to be usable. When changes are small +enough, the original translation is kept in PO files but marked as +<literal>fuzzy</literal>. +</para> +<para> +If you plan to do changes +to your original templates, please use the notification system provided with +the <systemitem +role="package">po-debconf</systemitem> package, namely the <command> +podebconf-report-po</command>, to contact translators. Most active translators are very responsive and getting their work included along with your modified templates will save you additional uploads. If you use gettext-based -templates, the translator's name and e-mail addresses are mentioned in the po -files headers. +templates, the translator's name and e-mail addresses are mentioned in the PO +files headers and will be used by <command> +podebconf-report-po</command>. +</para> +<para> +A recommended use of that utility is: </para> +<programlisting>cd debian/po && podebconf-report-po --languageteam --withtranslators --call --deadline="+10 days"</programlisting> <para> -The use of the <command>podebconf-report-po</command> from the <systemitem -role="package">po-debconf</systemitem> package is highly recommended to warn -translators which have incomplete translations and request them for updates. +This command will first synchronize the PO and POT files in debian/po with +the templates files listed in <filename>debian/po/POTFILES.in</filename>. +Then, it will send a call for translation updates to the language team +(mentioned in the <literal>Language-Team</literal> field of each PO file) +as well as the last translator (mentioned in +<literal>Last-translator</literal>). Finally, it will also send a call for +new translations, in the &email-debian-i18n; mailing list. +</para> +<para> +Giving a deadline to translators is always appreciated, so that they can +organize their work. Please remember that some translation teams have a +formalized translate/review process and a delay lower than 10 days is +considered as unreasonable. A shorter delay puts too much pressure on translation +teams and should be kept for very minor changes. </para> <para> If in doubt, you may also contact the translation team for a given language (debian-l10n-xxxxx@&lists-host;), or the &email-debian-i18n; mailing list. </para> -<para> -Calls for translations posted to &email-debian-i18n; with the -<filename>debian/po/templates.pot</filename> file attached or referenced in a -URL are encouraged. Be sure to mentions in these calls for new translations -which languages you have existing translations for, in order to avoid duplicate -work. -</para> </section> <section id="s6.5.2.3"> @@ -787,15 +806,89 @@ When the text of a debconf template is corrected and you are <emphasis role="strong">sure</emphasis> that the change does <emphasis role="strong">not</emphasis> affect translations, please be kind to translators -and unfuzzy their translations. +and <emphasis>unfuzzy</emphasis> their translations. </para> <para> If you don't do so, the whole template will not be translated as long as a translator will send you an update. </para> <para> -To <literal>unfuzzy</literal> translations, you can proceed the -following way: +To <emphasis>unfuzzy</emphasis> translations, you can use two methods. The first +method does <emphasis>preventive</emphasis> search and replace actions in the +PO files. The latter uses <command>gettext</command> utilities to <emphasis>unfuzzy</emphasis> +strings. +</para> +<para> +<emphasis>Preventive unfuzzy</emphasis> method: +</para> +<orderedlist numeration="arabic"> +<listitem> +<para> +Try finding a complete translation file <emphasis role="strong"> before</emphasis> +the change: +</para> +<programlisting>for i in debian/po/*po; do echo -n $i: ; msgfmt -o /dev/null +--statistics $i; done</programlisting> +<para> +The file only showing <emphasis>translated</emphasis> items will be used +as the reference file. If there is none (which should not happen if you take +care to properly interact with translators), you should use the file +with the most translated strings. +</para> +</listitem> +<listitem> +<para> +Identify the needed change. In this example, let's assume the change is about +fixing a typo in the word <literal>typo</literal> which was inadvertently +written as <literal>tpyo</literal>. Therefore, the change is +<command>s/tpyo/typo</command>. +</para> +</listitem> +<listitem> +<para> +Check that this change is only applied to the place where you really intend +to make it and <emphasis role="strong">not</emphasis> in any other place +where the original string is appropriate. This specifically applies to +change in punctuation, for instance. +</para> +</listitem> +<listitem> +<para> +Modify all PO files by using <command>sed</command>. The use of that command +is recommended over any text editor to guarantee that the files encoding will +not be broken by the edit action. +</para> +<programlisting> +cd debian/po +for i in *.po; do sed -i 's/tpyo/typo/g' $i; done +</programlisting> +</listitem> +<listitem> +<para> +Change the debconf template file to fix the typo. +</para> +</listitem> +<listitem> +<para> +Run <command>debconf-updatepo</command> +</para> +</listitem> +<listitem> +<para> +Check the <filename>foo.po</filename> reference file. Its statistics should +not be changed: +</para> +<programlisting> +msgfmt -o /dev/null --statistics debian/po/foo.po +</programlisting> +</listitem> +<listitem> +If the file's statistics changed, you did something wrong. Try again +or ask for help on the &email-debian-i18n; mailing list. +</listitem> +</orderedlist> +<para> +Gettext utilities method: </para> <orderedlist numeration="arabic"> <listitem> @@ -850,7 +943,7 @@ <title>Do not make assumptions about interfaces</title> <para> Templates text should not make reference to widgets belonging to some debconf -interfaces. Sentences like If you answer Yes... have no meaning for users of +interfaces. Sentences like <emphasis>If you answer Yes...</emphasis> have no meaning for users of graphical interfaces which use checkboxes for boolean questions. </para> <para> @@ -868,12 +961,12 @@ <section id="s6.5.2.5"> <title>Do not use first person</title> <para> -You should avoid the use of first person (I will do this... or We -recommend...). The computer is not a person and the Debconf templates do not +You should avoid the use of first person (<emphasis>I will do this...</emphasis> or <emphasis>We +recommend...</emphasis>). The computer is not a person and the Debconf templates do not speak for the Debian developers. You should use neutral construction. Those of you who already wrote scientific publications, just write your templates -like you would write a scientific paper. However, try using action voice if -still possible, like Enable this if ... instead of This can be enabled if .... +like you would write a scientific paper. However, try using active voice if +still possible, like <emphasis>Enable this if ...</emphasis> instead of <emphasis>This can be enabled if...</emphasis>. </para> </section> @@ -925,7 +1018,36 @@ <para> A choice between one of a number of values. The choices must be specified in a field named 'Choices'. Separate the possible values with commas and spaces, -like this: Choices: yes, no, maybe +like this: <literal>Choices: yes, no, maybe</literal>. +</para> +<para> +If choices are translatable strings, the 'Choices' field may be marked as +translatable by using <literal>__Choices</literal>. The double underscore will split out +each choice in a separate string. +</para> +<para> +The <command>po-debconf</command> system also offers interesting possibilities +to only mark <emphasis role="strong">some</emphasis> choices as translatable. +Example: +</para> +<programlisting> +Template: foo/bar +Type: Select +#flag:translate:3 +__Choices: PAL, SECAM, Other +_Description: TV standard: + Please choose the TV standard used in your country. +</programlisting> +<para> +In that example, only the 'Other' string is translatable while others +are acronyms that should not be translated. The above allows only +'Other' to be included in PO and POT files. +</para> +<para> +The debconf templates flag system offers many such possibilities. The +<citerefentry> +<refentrytitle>po-debconf</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>7</manvolnum> +</citerefentry> manual page lists all these possibilities. </para> </section> @@ -1168,7 +1290,7 @@ <para> This special field allow translators to put the most appropriate choice according to their own language. It will become the default choice when their -language is used while your own mentioned Default Choice will be used chan +language is used while your own mentioned Default Choice will be used when using English. </para> <para>
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part.