Re: Special request for priority

[Chris Leonard <cjlhomeaddress gmail com>]

2012/3/23 Mario Blättermann <mario blaettermann gmail com>:
> Am 23.03.2012 09:46, schrieb Chris Leonard:
>> On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 3:17 AM, Rudolfs Mazurs
>> <rudolfs mazurs gmail com> wrote:
>>> C , 2012-03-22 18:00 -0400, Chris Leonard rakstīja:
>>>> I would like to ask the various teams to consider prioritizing
>>>> WebKitGTK+ for translation
>>>>
>>>> http://l10n.gnome.org/module/webkit/
>>> Why isn't webkitgtk+ in at least gnome-extras category?
>>>
>> Good question.
>>
>>
> Good answer: Webkitgtk+ is not available from the GNOME Git repo. Those
> modules are easy to maintain for translators, but supplying translations
> for Webkitgtk+ is some more difficult. First, you have to translate it,
> then you have to file a bug against Webkitgtk+, and one day (or some
> days later) you get the answer from the maintainers that your po file
> has been committed. In the meantime, your translation became outdated
> again. Not that attractive for translators, and not that practical. Due
> to these delays in the workflow, and due to that we don't have direct
> commit access anyway, it would be odd to recognize Webkitgtk+ as a
> "normal" module which could be assigned to a "normal" release set.

Thank you for a thorough and informative answer, sadly "good" is a
relative term, I might characterize it as a "realistic and accurate,
but unfortunate" answer :-(

It sounds to me like the solution will be as much "social engineering"
as "software engineering" and will require some i18n/L10n evangelism
in the WebKitGTk+ community.  That obviously takes some time and is
not necessarily "patched" that simply, but it is good to know the
factors that are contributing to the low coverage rate of L10n for
WebKitGTK+.

I may be overly optimistic, but I tend to believe that software
developers want the widest possible audience for their work and that
i18n/L10n is an incredibly low-cost/high-impact route to expanding
one's user base, so it is ultimately a matter of developing a "sense
of enlightened self-interest" in the development community with regard
to i18n/L10n issues.  I  appreciate the good wishes for my quixotic
commitment to tilting at those particular windmills. [1], although I
can certainly understand the reluctance of localizers to invest in a
project that may not have been as responsive as it should be on i18n
issues.

Warmest Regards,

cjl


[1]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quixotism