proposed string change to ubuntu-docs

[Matthew East]

On Mon, 2005-10-03 at 16:58 +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 03, 2005 at 04:16:56PM +0100, Matthew East wrote:
> > We have a string at the moment in the ubuntu-docs package which we would
> > like to apply to change, i.e. an exception to the String Freeze which
> > passed several weeks ago.
> [...]
> > The string under discussion is the one that appears in the Yelp base
> > menu, which you get when you click on Help in the menu. Presently it
> > reads:
> > 
> > Unofficial Ubuntu 5.10 Starter Guide
> [...]
> > We think that the word "unofficial" should be removed from this string.
> > 
> > Advantages of changing the string would be:
> >  * reflect the major changes and serious work that has gone into the
> > guide
> >  * give users greater confidence in the guide
> >  * avoid unnecessary conflicts with the guide at ubuntuguide.org
> > 
> > Now, as we all know, the string freeze is essentially in place to allow
> > translation of the stuff to go ahead. It is as well to mention at this
> > point that there has been no translation that I am aware of with regard
> > to that string, either for Hoary or for Breezy (i've checked the major
> > languages that I've seen). The string therefore appears in English
> > regardless of the user's locale. For this reason I am convinced that
> > there is no disadvantage to changing the string.
> 
> If there are no actual translations of that string, either in the
> package or in Rosetta, then it's fine to change it, subject to other
> freeze constraints (for instance, changing the string shouldn't cause
> "interesting" changes in functionality).

To my knowledge there would be no such changes in functionality.

> Changes here should happen as soon as possible or not at all, since we
> have release candidate in three days.

Thanks for this indication. As far as speed is concerned, we can do the
change really fast. When it is decided what the string should be, we can
implement it and Jeff will upload it.

> > In fact, it goes even further than this. If we were to change the string
> > to Ubuntu FAQ Guide, this is a string which appears in the translated
> > document, and as a result we should be able to get a translated string
> > also appearing in the Yelp menu.
> 
> I'm not convinced that "Ubuntu FAQ Guide" is a good replacement for the
> above string, though. Shouldn't user-facing documentation avoid
> abbreviations that aren't in everyday use outside the Internet
> community? Besides, when expanded, "Ubuntu Frequently Asked Questions
> Guide" seems like a somewhat random collection of words to me.

Agreed. The problem is that the title of the document is Ubuntu FAQ
Guide (in hindsight this is indeed a bit misleading), but when looking
for a suitable replacement for the string, we looked for a string in the
document itself because this would enable us to have a translated string
on the front page of Yelp. So we have three alternatives:

1. Use "Ubuntu FAQ Guide" and try and get the (existing) translations of
this string transferred to the yelp page
2. If we decide not to translate it, we can have a better string like
"Ubuntu 5.10 Starter Guide".
3. Have a better string anyway and try and get translations done for the
string ASAP.

The third option is not normally one I would propose, but in this case,
there is a consideration which might interest you: the faqguide, being
incredibly long, has not been fully translated in many languages [1].
Most languages are still struggling through the translation. For this
reason I had it in my mind anyway to apply for an update for ubuntu-docs
which would include revised translations, in a similar way to which the
language-packs are updated. However, that may be a more major discussion
to postpone for another day.

In the meantime, I'll be guided by you as to which of the 3 alternatives
we should use.

yours, Matt

[1]
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/breezy/+sources/ubuntu-docs/+pots/faqguide

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