Re: Added requirement for translation of debconf templates
On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 07:59:50PM +0000, Neil Williams wrote:
> Mark Brown <broonie@sirena.org.uk> wrote:
> > translations until translations are done. Another way is to allow the
> > translations to lag a bit but ensure that when they are available they
> > are included promptly.
> That doesn't help the user. When the package is upgraded from the
> previous version or installed fresh, the user only gets the question in
> English. When the translation arrives, the debconf question has already
> been answered and the user gets no benefit. None.
Like I said, it's a question of balance. Users of unstable will see the
problems you've described, but on the other hand they'll also get the
benefits of whatever else was included in the upload. Depending on what
those are having the translation missing may be less bad. Things like
the priority of the template and prominence of the package will also
have an influence here - for example, many users will never be presented
with low priority templates at all.
> Any upload that changes the debconf template needs to be translated
> before the upload or the user gets no benefit from the translation.
...for you to review/sponsor the upload.
> This isn't like program translations that can be updated later on,
> debconf only ever asks once.
> Or do you think that anyone without English as their first language
> should be condemned to run every installation through dpkg-reconfigure ?
> Who do we care about here? Translations exist primarily for the user,
> they do not exist to make things easy for maintainers or sponsors.
> These are not build tools for your convenience.
I think you're overreacting here. I'm not saying that we should ignore
translations or actively remove them, I'm saying that debconf prompts
aren't the only thing in a package and that as a result of this being
completely inflexible about waiting for translations may not always be
the best approach.
As your own personal preference this is fine, but you appear to be
presenting this as a decided Debian wide policy that will be applied to
everything and for that I do feel that we need a more flexible policy
to avoid overprioritising one specific aspect of package quality.
--
"You grabbed my hand and we fell into it, like a daydream - or a fever."
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