Request for Docs Freeze Extension for ubuntu-docs

[Jeremy Bicha]

On 21 March 2012 04:37, David Planella <david.planella at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>> I was a bit surprised to see that ubuntu-docs and kubuntu-docs are
>> listed on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NonLanguagePackTranslationDeadline .
>> It doesn't seem right to give the translators less time to translate
>> stuff that will be changing until the last possible minute especially
>> since Ubuntu has complete control over the packaging for these. Is
>> that page still up-to-date?
>
> The page is up to date. I'm not sure I quite follow the part about stuff
> changing at the last minute. There is a clear deadline (docs string
> freeze) after which (barring freeze exceptions) translators know the
> text is frozen and can start doing their work safely.
>
> There is also a clear deadline (NonLanguagePackTranslationDeadline)
> where they know translations should be finished.

Thanks David for the reply. My question was: Why is ubuntu-docs
subject to the NonLP deadline; wouldn't it be better for everyone if
it were part of the later LanguagePackTranslation deadline? Two weeks
is awfully short to translate something massive like ubuntu-docs and I
hate to cut it into some of that time.

>> It's important that we first understand
>> how long translators have
>
> Looking at the release schedule, they've got 2 weeks and 2 days to
> translate Ubuntu documentation:
>
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseSchedule
>
> It's a tight schedule, but the idea is to leave documenters as much time
> as possible to do their work after UI freeze.
>
>> before answering my other question: How much
>> additional time can we have to improve the Unity documentation?
>>
>
> Technically, and if the docs team would commit to fetch translations
> from Launchpad and do an upload with those translations by
> LanguagePackDeadline, that'd give both translators and documenters extra
> time.

Maybe mdke knows a bit more about how that works, but I think I'd need
someone to walk me through how to do that correctly. For instance,
there are typos in the Oneiric manual (where I believe we did freeze
at the scheduled deadline) but I wasn't sure how to go about fixing
them.

> However, it is up to the release team to grant that exception. I
> personally think that given the current situation it might be the best
> approach.
>
> I realize documentation is volunteer work, and you guys are awesome at
> producing high quality docs for Ubuntu. At the same time, though,
> everyone should realize that changes in the schedule affect other
> volunteer contributors, and while it's perfectly ok not to be able to
> finish a task, we should expect to do it gracefully, i.e. letting
> everyone affected know well in advance, if at all possible.
>
> As I've said on other occasions, this is not meant to point fingers at
> anyone, rather as an opportunity to learn for the future, and to work on
> a solution for now.
>
> Jeremy, I see that the release team is CC'd, but do you think you could
> ensure to follow up with them (e.g. making sure it's on the agenda for
> their next meeting) and let us know about the outcome?

Yes, I'll follow up with the release team today so that translators
can know what's going on.

I guess a bit of my frustration is that I realize the docs won't be as
good as I hoped, but that's the cost of short release cycles: never
enough time to do everything. :-)

Thanks,
Jeremy