Re: String Freeze breakage

[Dafydd Harries <daf muse 19inch net>]

Ar 24/02/2004 am 20:20, ysgrifennodd Jeff Waugh:
> Dude, I think it would be perfectly appropriate if you sent some rantage to
> d-d-l about this. I've been incredibly surprised by the attempts to slushify
> the string freeze this time around. Not good, particularly since we've had
> long discussions about how much we want to see more (and better)
> translations.

I think this would be entirely justified. I see two separate problems.

 - Developers not getting their act together about getting string
   changes in early.
 - Developers not following proper string change procedure / using common
   sense when they wish to change strings.

<http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/tasks.html> says:

 "Translators can work without worrying that the original English
  strings will change, and documentation writers can take accurate
  screenshots."

This freeze, we've had:

 - Several unannounced string freeze breakages.
 - String changes being committed without the clear consent of the
   translators.
 - People asking for string changes without actually telling us what the
   changes actually are.
 - People requesting string changes while pointing us to patches that
   aren't what's going to be committed.

I realise that it can be a challenge to get your CVS module into a state
where no user-visible string changes happen for over a month, but the
string freeze is currently a joke. We could just take the approach of
rejecting changes outright, but at the same time we recognise that many
of the changes for which permission is requested are valid and
important.

I think a large part of the problem is that developers haven't got the
mindset where they decide on the string changes they're going to make
*before the string freeze*.

-- 
Dafydd