From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Jean-Christophe Helary Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: A system for localizing documentation strings Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:49:15 +0900 Message-ID: References: <795F38F4-7253-47DC-97DD-53BED4F0AB97@mx6.tiki.ne.jp> <46A8B498.1070502@gnu.org> <46A8C099.6060401@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.3) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1185465031 30819 80.91.229.12 (26 Jul 2007 15:50:31 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:50:31 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jul 26 17:50:30 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1IE5bW-0004Mn-W9 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:50:23 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IE5bN-0000XW-Nb for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:50:09 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IE5b9-0000OX-Ns for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:49:55 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IE5b6-0000Il-2t for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:49:55 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IE5b5-0000Ig-VU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:49:51 -0400 Original-Received: from smtp9.tiki.ne.jp ([218.40.30.106]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1IE5b2-00062Q-Qt for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:49:50 -0400 Original-Received: from [192.168.11.4] (pl062.nas933.takamatsu.nttpc.ne.jp [210.136.182.62]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp9.tiki.ne.jp (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l6QFnPRU036281 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:49:26 +0900 (JST) (envelope-from fusion@mx6.tiki.ne.jp) In-Reply-To: <46A8C099.6060401@gnu.org> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.3) X-detected-kernel: FreeBSD 5.3-5.4 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:75582 Archived-At: On 27 juil. 07, at 00:41, Jason Rumney wrote: > Jean-Christophe Helary wrote: >> I think I understand. But you have to consider that as soon as we >> provide a localization framework we offer the possibility to have >> something else but English as the default. > > I think it is a bad idea to mix default languages. The default will be > used as a fallback, so it should be English where possible, as that is > the most widely understood language in the world today. Obviously English will be the default for English speaking communities, Portuguese for Portuguese speaking communities. Besides, English is not the most widely understood language in the world today. And maybe emacs-dev is not the right place to make such assumptions anyway. Obviously we have a very strong English speaking community here... > If a developer does not speak English, they could use Portuguese > for the > doc strings originally, but as soon as English translations are > available, they should become the default, and the Portuguese moved > out > to whatever translation format we end up with. Obviously this is a fundamental mistake in the design as I wrote earlier: if Portuguese developers want to modify the code they originally wrote they'd need to refer to a different file to find their original comments. Also, a Lebanese developer who reads French would rather have French as the default than any dialect of English. Either localization is agnostic (ie it considers all languages technically equal) or it is flawed. Jean-Christophe Helary