[GRASS-dev] Re: twekaing messages [was: r30420 - grass/trunk/scripts/v.db.renamecol]

[Hamish]

> > I think so - the translators will "thank" you if it wasn't needed.

Maciej:
> I think it was.

ok then fine.

> What now - do I revert the messages to their worse form for the sake
> of translations?

No.

> If so, this technicaly means all messages are frozen once translated
> to any language. How do GRASS devs find it? How do we deal with
typos, 
> better wording etc. then?

No. You are welcome and encouraged to improve messages. Just be aware
that it makes work for others whenever you do, which means please avoid
frivolous little stylistic changes all on their own, but don't be
afraid to make changes which improve the content.


> Getting back to v.db.renamecol - what about this message (r30131 vs
> r30445):
> 
> 138,140c130,132
> < if [ "$col" = "cat" ] ; then
> <    g.message -e "Cannot rename <$col> column as it is needed to
> keep 
> table \
> <      connected to vector map"
> ---
>  > if [ "$oldcol" = "$keycol" ] ; then
>  >    g.message -e "Cannot rename column <$oldcol> as it is needed to
> 
> keep table <$table>\
>  >      connected to the input vector map"
> 
> At least the $col var must be replaced with $oldcol, due to a bug
> fix. 
> What do I do?


If the change is needed, then do it. If you do change a string a little
for a fix anyway, the string is already changed so other little changes
on the line could be sneaked in.

(and try to follow whatever guidelines are given on the wiki message
standardization page; I know it is incomplete, and there have not been
votes etc to decide any real rules. so it is just a guide. please feel
free to add comments to that page as well)

I have a bit of a "the sooner we start, the sooner we'll have it done"
attitude to these massive tasks and (from my engineering background I
guess) that flexible+thoughtful guidelines are in the long run stronger
than hard+mindless rules. A first step of course is locking down the
guidelines on that wiki page a bit more.

http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/Development_Specs#Message_standardization

so everyone should please visit that page and add in their 2c if they
have something to say -- or else it leads to these threads a year and
thousands of commits later.   Still, by the last-edit-wins nature of,
it a wiki will always be a poor place to try and come to a consensus,
IMHO.


ramble,
Hamish



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