[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > I understand Hartmut very well, but I also understand several points of the
> > others.
>
> I know him very well. [...]
to know someone and to understand someone can be
two very different things by times :)
> > 1.) We should have in mind the average user - also a beginner - which downloads
> > a documentation. If he finds it in his native language, he'll DL it. He wouldn't
> > ever think that it might be not complete. So a missing function in the doc
> > doesn't exist in the language.
> > -> We really should care that all functions are available in each
> > laguage-version of the documentation (no matter if English or already
> > translated). If you do it via a script, splitting up files, shouldn't really
> > matter, if most of you are against file splitting, make another proposal, or do
> > the script-change (or tell me how I can lean it, and I'll do it).
>
> I have always stated, that all people can make contributions to the
> manual. Contributions for the manual have been made in the original
> english manual first. If there are some errors, it will be corrected, as
> soon one of the editors find some time.
I think you still didn't get the point on the missing functions issue,
Egon.
Translations will always stay behind the original, and right now
functions
added to already translated files will not show up in the translated
manuals
(different to completely untranslated files which configure does take
care of)
as the substitution mechanism right now works on the *file* level, not
the
*function* level.
In an ideal world translators would catch up with manual changes fast
enough
but reality draws a very different picture. I don't know about other
languages,
but with the german version of the manual the question "why is function
foo
not documented in the german manual, may it be german or untranslated
english,
although there *is* documentation for it in the original manual?" has
come
up to me more than once, so i'd like to do something about it if
possible.
> > 2.) Resources for Open Source projects:
> > iX, a German magazine, brought it to the point: A big issue for Open Source is
> > the motivation to get enough resources.
>
> I know iX very well and I have seen articles which are not in my opinion.
How is this comment related to the message above? Unless you want to say
that iX magazine is generally wrong with whatever it writes this
argument
just doesn't make any sense.
Motivation is a very big issue to take care about, thats exactly the
point
i started from with both issues (repository size and missing functions)
we are talking about here.
For myself i see no need to take care of all this stuff as i usually
read
the original english manual (or even the source) and need a complete
checkout of the manual for the function tables anyway.
But i see others that get bitten by checkout and update times or by
missing
functions in their prefered version of the documentation. As this
(together
with the issue of being silently ignored when asking for a CVS account)
might
deter possible php users and manual contributors i'd like to take care
of this
if possible.
This thread started with me stating that we have a possible problem and
that i was thinking about possible solutions to this problems.
Stating that we do not even have a problem were not the kind of
comments i expected in the first place.
> 23 MBs is not so much :) It's is only timeconsuming if you try to checkout
> the first time. And if you read the PHP-DOC mailinglist, you can be shot
> with a 8 MB diff by Rui Hirokawa.
you have traped yourself into a contradiction here :)
as it is *not* only time-consuming on initial checkout
but also whenever a big patch is applied to any of the translations
this together with to fact that right now 75% of the xml sources is of
no interest for the average contributor makes me think about
being hit by it twice (via cvs update *and* the commit message mail)
makes it even worse, but the patches attached to the mails are a
different story
> > To make a long story short:
> >
> > Please don't "beat down" one single proposal, but think cool about the
> > user's/translator's needs and about possible ways to realize them
that's exactly why i asked for comments and suggestions in the original
posting :)
--
Hartmut Holzgraefe [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.six.de +49-711-99091-77
