Re: Should translators change source strings?

[Mark McLoughlin <markmc redhat com>]

On Mon, 2005-08-08 at 09:48 -0400, Adam Weinberger wrote:
>  Absence of 
> po/README.TRANSLATORS will mean that translators have implicit 
> permission to edit the source strings themselves to resolve simple, 
> obvious grammar and spelling errors.

	I think this is mostly fair enough, but I wouldn't like to see a
situation where translators routinely re-phrase messages or chose
different terminology.

	e.g. I could imagine a situation where a translator goes on  a crusade
through nautilus replacing the word "directory" everywhere with the word
"folder" where, in fact, there might have been a long discussion in the
past about which term is most appropriate in that context.

	So, I think it makes sense that the maintainer should be involved
(through bugzilla) with string changes, even just as an arbitrator,
unless its a very obvious typo of some sort. And even with obvious
typos, sending the maintainer the patch with a mail "I've just committed
this obvious fix" is always polite.

	Also, I'd hope that translators would be well aware of when string
freezes are in effect :-)

Cheers,
Mark.