Re: Git vs SVN (was: Can we improve things?)

["Christian Rose" <menthos gnome org>]

On 9/9/07, Steve Frécinaux <nudrema gmail com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2007-09-08 at 12:48 -0400, Behdad Esfahbod wrote:
> >   - Move translations out of modules into a new module dedicated to
> > translations of all GNOME modules.  Fixes many build-broken issues but
> > has many more issues.
>
> That's how KDE guys do, I think. IMHO it has the following advantages:
>
> - what takes the longest while building a new checkout are translations
>   of strings and help files.
> - translator work doesn't get in the way of developers, and the other
>   way.

It also has many serious problems. Problems with synching, lack of
context, updated translations not always being incorporated into
releases, etc. There is an advantage with having everything in one
place, but apart from that, everything else seems to be drawbacks
arising from introducing yet another artificial layer.


> - most developers don't understand much at how the po/ and help/
>   directories work, which makes those broken more often than never.

In my book, that's an advantage of the current system -- most
maintainers know the basics of the po and help directories. And you
need to know the basics about building your software. Not much, but at
least the basics. If you don't know how to fix your app, who should?
Encouraging the notation that some parts of your application are the
responsibility of "others" in an isolated space and you don't need at
all care about those parts, probably isn't a good way to get good
quality in the end. Nothing is ever solved by letting others be
responsible for solving problems that may have been introduced by you.
Or vice versa. That's a basic fact in SCM.

Furthermore, in GNOME, we have many translators that started out with
just translating, but continued with fixing bugs, and some are full
time coders now. We should be proud of this integration in the
community.
Getting the impression that some are still advocating to the effect of
"coders are born coders and translators are born translators, and
let's get an isolated sand box for the translators to play in" just
makes me sad.


Christian