Re: Translations [of Documentation] in Git release?

[Peter Krefting <peter@softwolves.pp.se>]

Jakub Narebski:

> Fundamental, that program output is considered API (at least for
> plumbing commands) and used when scripting (this might be ameliorated
> with "I am script" switch or environmental variable).

That's a bug. Protocol data (which one could consider the plumbing
output to be) should never be forwarded to the end-user, except for
debugging purposes. It is the porcelain's task here to translate the
messages for the user.

Plumbing commands could still output semi-readable English, but it is
still to be considered protocol, and be hidden from the user. Having
low-level protocol data filter through to the end-user is a common
mistake in software, unfortunately, and makes internationalization and
localization a lot harder.

Of course, if the user insists on calling the plumbing commands
directly, he will not get translated output. That's expected behaviour.

> Technical, because Git is mixture of programs in C, shell scripts,
> and Perl scripts, and you have to come with technical means of
> translating messages in all three of them.

Gettext has succesfully been used to translate messages in all of these
environments, so that should not be a big problem.

> Not in all cases. Sometimes it shows "long usage". Perhaps that
> should be made more consistent?

Consistency is good.

-- 
\\// Peter - http://www.softwolves.pp.se/