Re: language for changelog

[Christian Schwarz <schwarz@monet.m.isar.de>]

I second Joey's request that changelog files should be written in
English--even if the package is useful for other languages too.

(Just consider a Debian system where lots of different peoples have
accounts--like master.debian.org. AFAIK, none of our admins know Chinese,
but perhaps a few users want those Chinese support packages. If the admin
is carefully, he'll check the changelog files before upgrading the
packages...) 

BTW, the same should apply to copyright files: I just noticed that the
copyright file of the selfhtml package (a german online book about HTML)
is written in German only. I'd consider this as a bug, but before I file a
bug report I wanted to discuss this here.

In summary, I'd propose the following policy:

  ``The Debian changelog and the copyright files of a package must be
  written in English. If the original license is written in a non-English 
  language, that original version must be included in the package as well,
  together with a translation into English.''

Comments or objections?


Thanks,

Chris

--          _,,     Christian Schwarz
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