Re: Don't add ChangeLog entries to ChangeLog-less modules

[Anna Jonna Armannsdottir <annajonna gmail com>]

On sun, 2009-03-15 at 14:30 +0100, Christian Persch wrote:
> Hi;
> 
> Absence of ChangeLog, po/ChangeLog and help/ChangeLog etc. means that
> the module in question does not use changelogs. (For example,
> this is the case for epiphany, epiphany-extensions, gucharmap,
> gnome-terminal, gnome-games.) However, some translators still add
> changelog entries to modules that do not have ChangeLog files, adding
> them to po/ChangeLog.pre-X-Y or ChangeLog.old etc. These files are, as
> their name already indicates, not to be modified further. Please stop
> doing this.
> 
> Regards,
>         Christian

Dear Christian, 
even though Your text above is rather arrogant, I assume that You 
had the best of intentions. 
Generally speaking, it is always irritating when one group starts to 
violate a set of common rules, when the consequence is that some other 
group must pay for it. 
Therefore I would like to stress the necessity to get a consensus when 
changing the common rules, before the change is enforced. 

One common rule that translators and Team Coordinators must adhere to 
is, that they must add an entry to the ChangeLog before committing 
a translation update to the version system. 
According to Gnome rules, this is without exception. 

So, if the rules need to be changed, a proposal should be put forward 
and it might be accepted. A unilateral decision to change the rules 
will simply not do. 

Let me remind You, of the set of common rules about ChangeLog: 
http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject/SvnHowTo 
#############BEGIN#################
With a non-anonymous GNOME SVN (Subversion) account you have full access 
to the master GNOME code repository, and with that comes responsibility. 
Don't change ANYTHING in any module unless you are absolutely sure you 
are allowed to do so. When in doubt, always ask the maintainers of the 
module. Information about the maintainers of the module is usually in a 
file called MAINTAINERS in the module, and there's sometimes also a file 
called HACKING that contains useful information. 

As a translator, you will mostly be dealing with the "po" directories of
the modules. You of course are allowed to add or update a xy.po without
asking for permission, but here are a couple of things you should
remember to do before any xy.po commit: 

      * Make sure the file is encoded in UTF-8 (for GNOME2/GTK2
        software) 
      * Make sure the file passes the "msgfmt -cv xy.po" test 
      * Add an entry at the top of the "?ChangeLog" file in the po
        directory 

Look at the other entries in the ?ChangeLog for how the format looks
like. Remember to use UTF-8 in ?ChangeLog files (that's the only way
everyone can have their names spelled correctly), and use double spaces
and tabs at the correct places. This is the usual format: 

#############END################

Also a perl script that some people use to manipulate ChangeLog 
was written by some of the developers that are 
complaining about translators acting according to the rules. 

Let me remind You, of the set of common rules about ChangeLog: 

#############BEGIN#################
http://svn.gnome.org/svn/releng/trunk/tools/prepare-ChangeLog.pl 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# vim: ft=perl
# -*- Mode: perl; indent-tabs-mode: nil; c-basic-offset: 2  -*-

# Perl script to create a ChangeLog entry with names of files
# and functions from a cvs diff.
#
# Darin Adler <darin eazel com>, started 20 April 2000
# Java support added by Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>
# Multiple ChangeLog support added by Laszlo (Laca) Peter <laca sun com>
# Fernando Herrera added Subversion support
# Sven Herzberg added Git support
# Behdad Esfahbod improved the file format
# last updated 13 February 2007
#
# (Someone put a license in here, like maybe GPL.)
#
# TODO:
#   Command line parameter for reviewed-by lines
#   Provide option to put new ChangeLog into a separate file
#     instead of editing the ChangeLog.
#   For new files, just say "New file" instead of listing
#     function names.
[CUT]
#############END#################

Generally, I would say that there is some space for improvement. 

-- 
Anna Jonna Ármannsdóttir coordinator 
The Icelandic GNOME Localisation team 
http://l10n.gnome.org/teams/is was 11% translated