From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:47996) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1am6Ty-0000M6-17 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Fri, 01 Apr 2016 17:19:54 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1am6Tw-0000uQ-Vk for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Fri, 01 Apr 2016 17:19:53 -0400 References: <1459522215-13950-1-git-send-email-mreitz@redhat.com> From: John Snow Message-ID: <56FEE5F2.9020100@redhat.com> Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2016 17:19:46 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <1459522215-13950-1-git-send-email-mreitz@redhat.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [Qemu-block] [PATCH] block: Move away from anglo-centricity List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Max Reitz , qemu-block@nongnu.org Cc: Kevin Wolf , qemu-devel@nongnu.org On 04/01/2016 10:50 AM, Max Reitz wrote: > In its organizational structure, the qemu project is rather > decentralized: Many different maintainers manage their own more or less > secluded subsystems. However, regarding languages, it is still rather > anglo-centric. >=20 > This issue has been brought up multiple times in regards to user-visibl= e > output such as error messages and has unfortunately generally been > dismissed, except for some UIs. >=20 > Development always flows from the developer community to the user. Our > developer community is just as diverse (or at least I hope it is) as ou= r > user base. Therefore, we should reflect this diversity in our > development process in order for this diversity to reach our users as > well, so they can benefit from it. >=20 > The human-targeted part of that development process are comments in the > source code, obviously. Thus, in order to exhibit qemu's diversity, it > makes sense for each subsystem's comments to be translated into the > maintainer's native language. >=20 > Unfortunately, I do not speak Swabian. >=20 > However, as a submaintainer under Kevin, I think it will be fine to > translate the comments into German, as that is supposedly a language we > both share. >=20 > I'm certain that this will not hamper development itself by much. First > of all, many other developers in the block area are able to speak > German: Markus Armbruster, Stefan Hajnoczi, Peter Lieven, Stefan Weil, > just to name a few. >=20 > Second, good code is supposed to be self-explanatory, i.e. without > reading the comments. While it should go without saying that the block > layer's code quality is simply marvelous, we can now proof that it > indeed is, by seeing whether people who cannot speak German can still > understand the code. >=20 > (Although some of our code is rumored to be rather hard to understand > even with the comments. But those rumors are purely unfounded, I am > sure.) >=20 > In the rather improbable event that someone is not able to understand > the code without being able to read the comments, they will then need t= o > learn German. So this is fine, too. >=20 > Third, this will surely attract a wave of German developers who were so > far unable to participate in qemu's development because of the language > barrier. In order to facilitate this process, the next step will be to > use German commit messages for every commit in the block layer and to > allow German variable names. >=20 > I am sure if all maintainers follow this process of translating their > subsystem's comments, variable names and string contents into their > native language, qemu will become a shining example of what we call > =E2=80=9EKraut und R=C3=BCben=E2=80=9C. And everyone knows how much the= Krauts like Kraut. >=20 > Signed-off-by: Max Reitz Acked-by: John Snow As a follow-up, please consider translating the legacy block devices so some right-minded developers will be able to understand what's going on inside of them, because I sure as hell don't. TIA --js