[Development] Policy on updating translatable strings in patch releases

[Alex Blasche]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Development <development-bounces at qt-project.org> On Behalf Of
> Mårten Nordheim

> I'm wondering about the policy on updating translatable strings in patch-
> releases.
> Our policy, as far as I know, only says that updating these strings should not
> happen for a release after string-freeze. However, recent bug-reports[0] have
> revealed that some changes made in Network triggers pre-existing error
> messages which are wrong given the new code, causing confusion for users.

> This is why I am hoping to update and clarify these messages[1]. But since they
> are translatable (and this is long after string-freeze for 6.3 and even longer for
> 6.2) I was wondering if we have a policy (formal or informal) in place for this.

I don't know of any written down rule stating the exceptions around the string freeze. This might be due to the very limited impact of such a break.

> Do we treat situations like this as a bug and make an exception (though extra
> effort will be required for translations in patch releases to have Qt fully
> translated) or do we limit such patches to 'dev' only?

I'd answer this with common sense. The impact of breaking string freeze on user code is extremely low. English is a rather common language.
If a string change is due to a bug (especially wrong error string) let's go for the string freeze break. I think all of us have had applications throwing up some English error code/description in otherwise translated applications.

I would not consider it justified as part of a bug where we change a UI element to have a nicer label or description. Maybe I lack imagination, but I cannot think of a string freeze break reason other than an error code.

--
Alex