Translations for HEAD and a possible string freeze
Hi, during the 4.7 release cycle, I have been very active translation Drupal into my language (German). I thought that I'll share my experiences with it. If I recall it correctly, there has been a "string freeze", meaning that strings will not change anymore from a certain date on. Unfortunately almost nobody cared about that freeze and strings were constantly changing. Having translated a string just find out that two days later, the string has been dropped or tweaked is quite annoying. In the first case, the work has been entirely superfluos, in the second case, you have to search the whole string for the parts that have changed - that can be even more sophisticated than translating the entire string anew. However, I have to admit that those string changes were necessary as they updated invalid URLs that have been changed from 4.6 to 4.7. I suggest that we'll do a string freeze for the HEAD version one month after the code freeze. That would be October 1st. I think that this would give documentation patches enough time to get in after the code "freeze" (which is actually not a freeze as patches still go in, it's more of a "feature freeze") while giving translators enough time to update their translations for HEAD before it is released to the public. I urge all developers to respect that "string freeze" and only break it if absolutely necessary. That means, that all major documentation patches should get in before October 1st. If you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them so we can discuss them. I'd like to know if everybody is okay with the date or if we should push or pull it. Regards, Konstantin
Konstantin Käfer wrote:
Hi,
during the 4.7 release cycle, I have been very active translation Drupal into my language (German). I thought that I'll share my experiences with it.
If I recall it correctly, there has been a "string freeze", meaning that strings will not change anymore from a certain date on.
You don't recall correctly, there never was an official string freeze. We tried to avoid string freezes, though.
I suggest that we'll do a string freeze for the HEAD version one month after the code freeze. That would be October 1st. I think that this would give documentation patches enough time to get in after the code "freeze" (which is actually not a freeze as patches still go in, it's more of a "feature freeze") while giving translators enough time to update their translations for HEAD before it is released to the public. I urge all developers to respect that "string freeze" and only break it if absolutely necessary. That means, that all major documentation patches should get in before October 1st.
I think this is a good idea. Other projects do that as well. Cheers, Gerhard
Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:
Konstantin Käfer wrote:
Hi,
during the 4.7 release cycle, I have been very active translation Drupal into my language (German). I thought that I'll share my experiences with it.
If I recall it correctly, there has been a "string freeze", meaning that strings will not change anymore from a certain date on.
You don't recall correctly, there never was an official string freeze. We tried to avoid string freezes, though.
I suggest that we'll do a string freeze for the HEAD version one month after the code freeze. That would be October 1st. I think that this would give documentation patches enough time to get in after the code "freeze" (which is actually not a freeze as patches still go in, it's more of a "feature freeze") while giving translators enough time to update their translations for HEAD before it is released to the public. I urge all developers to respect that "string freeze" and only break it if absolutely necessary. That means, that all major documentation patches should get in before October 1st.
I think this is a good idea. Other projects do that as well.
Cheers, Gerhard +1 for this
I suggest that we'll do a string freeze for the HEAD version one month after the code freeze. That would be October 1st.
I agree strongly in principle with this approach, because I fully recognize the problems associated with creating translations -- even if the wording changes by one letter you have to re-do work. The practical problem, however, is that documentation/rewording patches are among the last to get in. This is both because they're "gold-plating" stuff, often only addressed after all the "major" bugs are taken care of, but also because functionality/paths/etc. can still change between a code freeze and a release, so you end up re- writing documentation (and thus translations) if you write it too early. I'd therefore really appreciate it if we could tie the string freeze to a major project milestone such as beta 1 (or even, preferably, RC 1 if that would give enough time), rather than an arbitrary date. We simply have no idea what HEAD will look Sept. 1 or how long it will take to get it stable enough that documentation writers can go in and do their thing. -Angie
Many commercial software vendors handle international releases by having a slightly delayed release date a few weeks after the English version releases. Once the English release you know things are fairly stable and you can do a little polishing of the international ones. -----Original Message----- From: development-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Angela Byron Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 12:44 PM To: development@drupal.org Subject: Re: [development] Translations for HEAD and a possible string freeze
I suggest that we'll do a string freeze for the HEAD version one month after the code freeze. That would be October 1st.
I agree strongly in principle with this approach, because I fully recognize the problems associated with creating translations -- even if the wording changes by one letter you have to re-do work. The practical problem, however, is that documentation/rewording patches are among the last to get in. This is both because they're "gold-plating" stuff, often only addressed after all the "major" bugs are taken care of, but also because functionality/paths/etc. can still change between a code freeze and a release, so you end up re- writing documentation (and thus translations) if you write it too early. I'd therefore really appreciate it if we could tie the string freeze to a major project milestone such as beta 1 (or even, preferably, RC 1 if that would give enough time), rather than an arbitrary date. We simply have no idea what HEAD will look Sept. 1 or how long it will take to get it stable enough that documentation writers can go in and do their thing. -Angie -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.6/427 - Release Date: 8/24/2006
On Fri, 25 Aug 2006, Angela Byron wrote:
I'd therefore really appreciate it if we could tie the string freeze to a major project milestone such as beta 1 (or even, preferably, RC 1 if that would give enough time), rather than an arbitrary date. We simply have no idea what HEAD will look Sept. 1 or how long it will take to get it stable enough that documentation writers can go in and do their thing.
A string freeze should definitely happen before the release, and we ideally should have some translations ready for the release. I think Angela has this right with a possible string freeze later in the cycle, around beta 1 or RC1. Gabor
I'd say that RC1 is a good time, since drupal should be rather stable then, Gabor Hojtsy skrev:
On Fri, 25 Aug 2006, Angela Byron wrote:
I'd therefore really appreciate it if we could tie the string freeze to a major project milestone such as beta 1 (or even, preferably, RC 1 if that would give enough time), rather than an arbitrary date. We simply have no idea what HEAD will look Sept. 1 or how long it will take to get it stable enough that documentation writers can go in and do their thing.
A string freeze should definitely happen before the release, and we ideally should have some translations ready for the release. I think Angela has this right with a possible string freeze later in the cycle, around beta 1 or RC1.
Gabor
Yes, I agree that that "RC1" or something like that is better than a fixed date. We never know if some patches huge patches that go in the next couple of days break everything. 2006/8/25, Angela Byron <drupal-devel@webchick.net>:
I suggest that we'll do a string freeze for the HEAD version one month after the code freeze. That would be October 1st.
I agree strongly in principle with this approach, because I fully recognize the problems associated with creating translations -- even if the wording changes by one letter you have to re-do work.
The practical problem, however, is that documentation/rewording patches are among the last to get in. This is both because they're "gold-plating" stuff, often only addressed after all the "major" bugs are taken care of, but also because functionality/paths/etc. can still change between a code freeze and a release, so you end up re- writing documentation (and thus translations) if you write it too early.
I'd therefore really appreciate it if we could tie the string freeze to a major project milestone such as beta 1 (or even, preferably, RC 1 if that would give enough time), rather than an arbitrary date. We simply have no idea what HEAD will look Sept. 1 or how long it will take to get it stable enough that documentation writers can go in and do their thing.
-Angie
participants (6)
-
Angela Byron -
Gabor Hojtsy -
Gerhard Killesreiter -
Johan Forngren -
Konstantin Käfer -
Walt Daniels