[Development] Policy on updating translatable strings in patch releases

Mårten Nordheim marten.nordheim at qt.io
Mon Apr 25 16:06:26 CEST 2022


Thanks for the reply. I think barring any other comments I'll go ahead and stage the patch :)

Mårten.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Blasche <alexander.blasche at qt.io>
> Sent: fredag 22. april 2022 16:31
> To: Mårten Nordheim <marten.nordheim at qt.io>; Development Mailing List
> <development at qt-project.org>; localization at qt-project.org
> Subject: RE: Policy on updating translatable strings in patch releases
> 
> 
> > -----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


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