[libreoffice-design] Re: Workflow between dev, UX and l10n teams

On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 5:43 PM, Wols Lists <antlists@youngman.org.uk> wrote:
> Am I right in reading into this, that master is using American English?
> And if so, why? Seeing as LibreOffice is, at heart, a European program
> surely it should be using English?

Like British English? RP? Let's be specific here...

> What proportion of developers are native American speakers?

Not that many. It would be great to see more involvement from the US,
but I think that promoting the "this is a European Project" attitude
can really hurt those numbers. LibreOffice is a global project: No one
country or continent should try to claim it for itself.

> Bear in mind that most English variants use English spelling, not
> American spelling.

I think the phrase "American English spelling" is clearer -- there are
lots of languages spoken here across the pond, so the phrase "American
spelling" is ambiguous.

> At the end of the day, not enforcing en_us as a translation means that
> the majority of us (including those of us that speak English rather than
> American as our native language) are forced to suffer pain as the
> foundations are messed up underneath us.

Whoa there, cowboy!  (or whatever the British equivalent is) I think
that British, American, Canadian, etc.. English are all pretty
similar, so while I agree that we might have our little differences
about an extra 'u' in color, or whether the big vehicle that picks up
the trash is a Lorry or a Truck, it's not a big deal compared to the
diff between the Englishes and French or Spanish.

> And by allowing that *minority*
> to avoid suffering, they are enabled to cause unnecessary pain without
> even realising what they are doing!

*facepalm*

I know that you're just getting some stuff off your chest, and sure, I
get it: languages can be tough. So we get have a couple beers, find
the vertias in the vino, and start speaking French (wait, maybe that's
just what I do). More seriously, I'm trying to get people interested
in LibreOffice in the US, and it's really important for us to make the
project welcoming to users and new contributors.

You want to propose some changes? Sure, great plan. But please check
that your method of delivery doesn't paint the Americans as the
outsiders and buffoons of your diatribe, because the reality is that
we really don't have much going on in the US yet, and there's already
a hesitancy to interact with what is perceived as aloof Europeans. I
think that growth in the US has the potential to give a ton back to
the LibreOffice community in Development, Documentation, QA, and so
forth, but we need to go the extra mile there, not tell people that,
before they've opened a single spreadsheet or triaged a single bug,
they are somehow (?) "causing pain."

> The rule should be simple. Any changes of meaning can be edited directly
> in master. If it's non-native English, and poor at that such as it's
> hard to comprehend then it can be corrected in master. If it's clear
> comprehensible English, whether English or Strine or American or
> International or whatever, then it's off-limits for changes to master,
> and has to be done in Pootle or whatever as a localisation.

I like the general idea, but I am concerned about the feasibility. Notes:

1)  will inconsistency of nouns (e.g. color vs. colour), inconsistency
of grammar, etc.. within the sources in master make translation harder
for the native-lang teams?

2) What will the language be for builds w/o langpacks? Just a generic
'English'? (maybe we can call it "LibreOffice English" :-)

3) Who's going to step up to maintain en_US? (I'd love to help, but
I'm working tons of hours as it is)


Cheers,
--R

-- 
Robinson Tryon
QA Engineer - The Document Foundation
LibreOffice Community Outreach Herald
qubit@libreoffice.org

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