APT 0.6 l10n : some worries
I have some worries about APT 0.6 localisation handling and, yes, this
mail is long....
(sorry, it was meant to be sent on Sunday and, for various reasons, it
will go out only today....the day before I leave for 10 days...so
don't be surprised to see no answer to possible reactions to it)
Two weeks ago, I synced my arch repository with Matt Zimmermann's
one, and then requested all translators who have a 100% translation
for APT 0.5 to update their translation file.
This process is nearly finished and my arch copy
(http://www.perrier.eu.org/~bubulle/arch/bubulle@debian.org--2005) has
a nearly complete po/ directory for.....APT 0.6 source AS THEY WERE
TWO WEEKS AGO.
Matt is perfectly aware of this process...
However, in Florian Weimer status messages, I see mentions of some
patches which I don't know how to grab and even is they will be
applied or not.
There is a big chance that these patches introduced new messages
displayed to users....thus re-lowering the translation ratio if the
patches are applied. I'm indeed sure of this for Peter Palfrader's
patch (http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/02/msg00764.html).
Getting translations back to sync is a LONG PROCESS. Unless you have
experienced it, you have no idea of the energy involved. It usually
takes 3 successives waves of translators notifications for being sure
to keep the same translation ratio.
Moreover, when I sent the call for updates two weeks ago, the status
of the sources was supposed to be *stable*, at least for strings. So,
the message sent to translators was about "this is the last call for
updates". I can bet that if I post another call for updates *now*,
some translators will hate me. And some will just say "this is
ridiculous" and I can't say they would be wrong.
I also have a pending patch (see BTS) which cleans out
the extra CapiTaliZaTion in some messages ("Reading Package Lists...")
which make them look really strange English since years. I'd like to
know if I can apply it to my copy...and handle the induced translation
changes (which may be automated).
In short, I'm completely IN THE DARK and I begin to wonder whether the
huge work I did for APT l10n will finally be really useful. Something
I'm sure : if sarge ships with an incompletely translated APT for the
26 completely supported language, we will have 26 translation teams
very upset by the transition handling.....good luck for getting
updates in the future.
BTW, I leave for VAC next Wednesday and I'll be back only on March
4th. If another experimental release of APT 0.6 is needed, please sync
before with my archive copy.
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