Configure.help i18n system
[ Kernel mailing list added to Cc ]
Quoted 4 lines · Keitaro Yosimura
Configure.help i18n system is the thing which uses MD5 SUM of the text of the text as a key, and calls suitable data to the present language setup (it judges from an environment variable).
Quite frankly, I dislike the current Configure.help setup for a lot of reasons, none of which are i18n-related.
One is a "simple" technical detail (the fact that it is all in one big file instead of distributed over the places that actually _implement_ the different config options), but the other is just that from what I've seen, the overlap between people developing the code, and the people trying to explain the config options is actually rather small.
So I wonder if the Configure.help text should not possibly be even _more_ distributed than just splitting it up into different files. It might very well be acceptable to actually distribute it over the net (and have just a mapping of config options into www-addresses or something).
I suspect that this is actually something that intersects with the i18n
work: how does the i18n projects distribute the actual help texts? Done right, maybe the same distributed environment could be used for everything, and getting Configure.help entirely out of the "core kernel" tree, and into a separate distribution (where the English version would be just one among many distributions).
I like to keep things that belong together in one distribution (especially so that when people make changes to infrastructure they can more easily change all the users - there's been tons of synchronization problems with "external packages"), but on the other hand some things would probably be better maintained outside the core package.
Configure.help certainly isn't all that kernel version dependent, and could successfully be maintained completely outside the kernel, I suspect.
And I know that I'm bad at maintaining documentation like this, simply because I never use it, and I don't care enough. Trying to care about the i18n version when I don't even understand what it says would be completely impossible for me.
Comments?
Linus
Quoted 5 lines · Linus Torvalds
[ Kernel mailing list added to Cc ]
Quoted 3 lines · Keitaro Yosimura
Configure.help i18n system is the thing which uses MD5 SUM of the text of the text as a key, and calls suitable data to the present language setup (it judges from an environment variable).
[...]
Quoted 4 lines
So I wonder if the Configure.help text should not possibly be even _more_ distributed than just splitting it up into different files. It might very well be acceptable to actually distribute it over the net (and have just a mapping of config options into www-addresses or something).
I usually don't have a connection to the 'net when configuring a kernel... and most people are like this, 24/7 Internet connections are still somewhat of a rarity around here (and this country is "advanced" net-wise by non-US standards). Plus adds the bloat of a browser to the configury.
Signature · 4 lines
Dr. Horst H. von Brand mailto:[email protected] Departamento de Informatica Fono: +56 32 654431 Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria +56 32 654239 Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile Fax: +56 32 797513
Quoted 3 lines · Linus Torvalds
Configure.help certainly isn't all that kernel version dependent, and could successfully be maintained completely outside the kernel, I suspect.
It might not change much, but it can from time to time. The meaning of a particular option can evolve over time. I wouldn't want to see options have sections like "for kernel x.y.z the behaviour is this, but for kernel a.b.c the behaviour is thus". It's just clutter.
Another issue is ease of use. I just want to be able to download a single tarball, and then be able to go offline and configure, compile, read docs and so on. One example of this is when setting up a new box. Another is when I'm on the road, dial in and download a new patch and then hop on a plane and start playing with it.
Regards, Richard.... Permanent: [email protected] Current: [email protected]
At Thu, 7 Jun 2001 14:01:53 -0700 (PDT),
Quoted 5 lines · Linus Torvalds
Quoted 4 lines · Keitaro Yosimura
Configure.help i18n system is the thing which uses MD5 SUM of the text of the text as a key, and calls suitable data to the present language setup (it judges from an environment variable).
I'm one of members to maintain one version of the Japanese Configure.help. I also sent this question to Linus who coming in Japan, he denied this idea...
IMHO, using environment variable is not adequate; national language designation should be set to the make option. The behavior of make config must not be influenced by such a LANG environment variable. You might concern about displaying national language character (because it depends on the LANG variables), but it have merely relations to `i18n text'.
Quoted 6 lines
I suspect that this is actually something that intersects with the i18n
work: how does the i18n projects distribute the actual help texts? Done right, maybe the same distributed environment could be used for everything, and getting Configure.help entirely out of the "core kernel" tree, and into a separate distribution (where the English version would be just one among many distributions).
Current distribution to the i18n texts are all outside from the core kernel...
BTW, i18n Configure.help needs `quality assuarance' because in English all developers can recognize whether help text is correct or not. However, i18n text can read for only each national people, so developers cannot know about these correctness. From this point of view, I agree with Linus's comments because of this concerns.
But, there are some version of i18n Configure.help translations. What a waste to make them sleep...
Regards,
-- GOTO Masanori