Workflow between dev, UX and l10n teams

[Jan Holesovsky]

Hi Sophie, Mihovil,

Mihovil Stanić píše v Po 26. 01. 2015 v 10:25 +0100:

> Cosmetic changes (~ to _ or "Status" to "Status:" or ... to … or those 
> different quote styles I don't even have on my keyboard) and anything 
> similliar - NOT OK if you don't script it for all languages
> Cosmetic changes ("Big brown fox" -> "Big Brown Fox") - NOT OK at all, 
> change just for en_us, don't change my strings and don't even notify me 
> you did it in en_us

I see 2 problems here:

1) There is no tool that would detect these trivial changes, and would
   act accordingly.

2) The texts for translations are updated in big 'code' drops, without
   possibility for translators to affect the process in any way - for
   them it is too late.

Regarding 1) - I thought that Pootle is detecting the trivial changes
some way, and offering the original translation.  Is it not?  What can
be done to improve that, so that for translators it is just a matter of
checking; not a matter of translating?  [Or even what you suggest - that
it would just update the source strings without touching the
translations?]

Regarding 2) - I'm glad that you say that the strings will be now
getting to Pootle immediately after the code / string changes in master.
I think it is important that the translators will be able to deal with
the changes immediately, not several months later, so that they can
cooperate, and not only react.

In general, I don't think that setting extremely strict rules works,
unless you have means how to enforce them - like via a commit hook or so
(and it is extremely unpopular way to do things).

It is always much better to communicate - if you see a developer who
commits a change that causes you grief, please _do_ tell _him/her_
immediately, and - if possible - in a friendly way.  I'm sure he/she
will do much better the next time.

Unfortunately I did not see any signs of notice that this or that change
was problematic for localization on the development mailing list - were
there such warnings there?  Like "commit XY caused AB - please don't do
such things, unless we agree how to do that effectively / without pain"?
Or was it impossible so far because the strings in Pootle were not
synced with master?

Also - should we have a 'Localization' recurring topic in the ESC?  Who
would be the right representative there, please?

All the best,
Kendy