[development] String freeze

[Konstantin Käfer]

Hi,

> Last release, we had a "string freeze" once we hit RC1. This meant  
> that any clarifications/clean-ups/etc. to any user-facing text  
> (help messages, form labels, etc.) were 'frozen' and couldn't be  
> altered after RC1 was released, in order to give translators ample  
> time to translate Drupal.

I'm all for a string freeze like the last time. Keeping the string  
freeze date in mind helped us get a lot of UI text fixes in which  
improved overall usability.


> b) Is RC1 enough time? If we set it at beta-2 or something would  
> that allow us to include a few translations in Drupal core itself  
> by RC1?

I am a translator as well (German translation) and I think it was  
enough time to complete at least the most important parts of it.

I'd like to propose something else, though: While translating, I get  
to read all the help text included in Drupal, and I noticed that most  
of those help texts are not very well written and even include  
factual errors (e.g. removed features, no mention of newly added  
features etc.). I'd like to cast a kind of "user interface text team"  
that especially takes care of such issues. We could for example set  
up a site with Drupal 6, enable locale module and use it to modify  
the english strings (english -> english "translation"). After we've  
fixed those strings, we can create patches against HEAD. Not sure if  
that's a good/practiable solution. Any suggestions?

Konstantin Käfer – http://kkaefer.com/