[development] language used by the update process

[Neil Drumm]

Gabor Hojtsy wrote:
> I am on testing out the 4.5 -> 4.7 update path on the drupal.hu database
> (yes, we are going to span this route). I have found quite some
> problems, which I will go into detail later (to some of them in the form
> of patches against the update scripts :), now I just would like to start
> some discussion, or get the answer to this simple question.
> 
>   What is the intended interface language of the update process?
> 
> Some interface elemnts are translated, but most are not. The update
> script is especially buggy in this manner, since there is a t('Update')
> button, but then the 'Update' op is checked for (without the t()
> wrapper). So my first experience with the update process was that it
> does not work, and this needs to be fixed (I am much farther away in
> testing, but let us begin with this question).
> 
> If we are going to have the update process translated (which would be a
> good thing from the UI point of view), we should remember, that the new
> code (the new update system) runs on the old database, so that the
> translations of the update interface elements are not available. On the
> long run, if the update process does not change, the translations will
> be there, but they are mostly not there at this time (update used to be
> an English only process).
> 
> If translation support is put forward, many texts in the update scripts
> need to be updated to properly t(). Otherwise IMHO none should t().

The update script has been a place where as little is done as possible 
with the Drupal API. Drupal is fully bootstrapped by update, so we can 
use features like translation. The tradeoff is that using translations 
generates queries, which could be invalid.

If we do use t() and one of the tables used by translations changes at 
some point in the future, it would require writing an 
update_fix_xxx()-style function which does the necessary updates before 
the queries get a chance to run and generate errors.

I don't see this as a strong enough reason to not translate these pages. 
I'd support anyone adding t() throughout update.php

-- 
Neil Drumm
http://delocalizedham.com/