[Sugar-devel] #1686 UNSP: Accessibility - virtual keyboard

[Michael Stone]

Tomeu, Bert, James, Martin D., and Michael wrote:

>> T: Thanks a lot for lending a hand here.
  
My pleasure, and thanks for mentioning the ticket.
  
>>> M: Final remark: this patch names variables, methods, and classes in
>>> Spanish. Anyone troubled by this?
>>>
>>> (I ask because, while it's fine with me personally, I don't think I know
>>> consensus opinion on the subject.)
>>
>> T: I'm not so happy about it, I think it raises considerably the effort
>> needed to read the code, even for spanish speakers like me.
>
> B,J,MD: IMHO the whole code base should be in English. This is the language
> we use for collaborating. 

You and I certainly collaborate in English but the folks dealing with Sugar on
a daily basis in Uruguay, Peru, and Paraguay largely do not, at least in their
daily dealings among themselves. 

For this sole strategic reason, I think we need to consider accepting
well-written patches that come to us in Spanish or in English.

The main cost of pursuing this course is that patches written in Spanish are
somewhat harder for some prominent Sugar contributors to read than are patches
written in English. Additionally, having a mixed-language codebase may be
off-putting to some potential contributors. 

On the other hand, does it not seem likely that by welcoming patches written in
the first and most common language of our largest groups of users, we would
receive more patches, thereby gaining more contributors, some of whom might
grow to become integral members of our community?

(Finally, if we don't receive many patches, then what will be the loss for
having tried? At most, we will have a small number of patches to translate from
Spanish to English. Not a big deal, right?)

Regards,

Michael