Louis Suarez-Potts wrote: > I tend to agree with Vitor here but am open to persuasion to the > contrary. Put another way, what would be the raison d'�tre of EN NLC?
I figure it should be the same as all the other NL projects. In general, the NL projects deal with local, grass roots efforts. And other projects like marketing and documentation deal with global issues (e.g. SMP). Right now English doesn't have that grass roots side. Instead, some of that falls on lists that are supposed to be "global" lists, and some of it just doesn't happen at all. I think it'd be good to have a separation between local efforts, and global policy, for English. I think an English NL would go a long way towards improving parity between languages. Right now OOo seems to be divided into "English" and "everyone else". That's sad. Having an English NL is a good first step towards language parity. In addition, there are all the excellent reasons listed by Charles, which I don't need to repeat here. > But wouldn't that just entrench the French privilege? What I am > concerned with is, as I stated, that an EN project would, unless sharply > circumscribed, solidify its privilege. I think it would help put them all on the same level, with the same rules. By separating "local English" issues from "global OOo" issues. > How would you envision this process? Say that there is the PR for 2.0 > beta to be written (hint hint) and it's written initially in English. > Okay, it was written by the [EMAIL PROTECTED] group, not part of the EN > project. So, they don't have to translate it or anything. They do have > to get the word out to the press. But why does that require a separate > project? Okay, you listed one instance, where an english NL project does not have to do as much work as others. That does not, in any way, reduce the value of an English NL project. If the French government switches to OOo, the French NL project doesn't need to translate anything. Does that make the French NL project less valuable? > Nor is marketing the only point of NLC. In fact, it's not even the > primary point. The chief point is "resources and information" and also > "localization." So, let's turn to resources and information, and guess > what: they are already in English. We also don't have to worry about > localization. All you just said is that Level 1 stuff is already done. Fine, that just means that English NL goes straight to Level 2. > But let's go back to resources. There are documents that are written > in, say, Serbian, that ought to be in other languages. Few native > speakers of English in this project, I daresay, also speak or read > Serbian. They ought to, of course, but they don't. So, it's up to > Serbian project to translate them to English. What then is the EN NLC > doing wrt to Documentation? Or would the Serbian (or French or > German...) speakers be part of the English NLC? Why would this be any different as it is between any two NL projects. If French NL has a good document, and German NL likes it, they can translate it. English NL would get the exact same rules as everyone else. It's like this: Project A NL has a cool document. Project B NL would like a copy. Someone who speaks enough A and B makes a translation. It doesn't matter if A or B is "English". Why should it? > QA? Well, it's pretty automatic, as right now the EN builds are the > "default" builds. That could change, of course, but it's not likely. We have two default builds, German and English. Do you also oppose a German NL project? > So, I am unpersuaded. Maybe I'm missing something. What is to be gained > by having an EN NLC? And, how is the implicit privilege of English to > be limited, should an EN NLC be created? By there being an English NL, the project falls under the same rules as all the NL projects. No one gets special priviledges, no special limits. More parity. Cheers, -- Daniel Carrera | I don't want it perfect, Join OOoAuthors today! | I want it Tuesday. http://oooauthors.org | --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
