RE: [PATCH] Chinese translation of Documentation/HOWTO

[Li Yang-r58472]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rob Landley [mailto:rob@xxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 1:33 PM
> To: dave young
> Cc: Li Yang-r58472; gregkh@xxxxxxx; linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
> xiyou.wangcong@xxxxxxxxx; bryan.wu@xxxxxxxxxx; TripleX Chung; Maggie
Chen;
> torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [PATCH] Chinese translation of Documentation/HOWTO
> 
> On Thursday 21 June 2007 23:23:54 dave young wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > 2007/6/22, Rob Landley <rob@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> > > On Thursday 21 June 2007 10:40:17 Li Yang wrote:
> > > > This is a Chinese translated version of Documentation/HOWTO.
Currently
> > > > Chinese involvement in Linux kernel is very low, especially
comparing
> > > > to its largest population base.  Language could be the main
obstacle.
> > > > Hope this document will help more Chinese to contribute to Linux
> > > > kernel.
> > >
> > > I'm putting together a kernel documentation directory at
> > > http://kernel.org/doc and I could easily add translations in
there.  I
> > > just don't know if this is a good idea.
> >
> > I think it's not a good idea to merge translations into kernel.
> >
> > > The problem is, the submission of patches happens on the various
> > > kernel.org mailing lists, which are all in English.  Kernel
development
> > > is done in a single common language: English.  (If you'd like to
argue
> > > for it to be done in another language, please make the proposal in
> > > Linus's native Swedish.)
> >
> > Yes, I agree with you, and there's so many other languages, It's
> > better for someone to  create a standalone kdoc translation project
> > than to merge them into kernel.
> 
> I wasn't suggesting merging them into the kernel.
> 
> I'm doing a web page to put together html versions of lots of kernel
> documentation in a place Google can find it.  Peter Anvin was kind
enough to
> give me http://kernel.org/doc for this.  It would not be technically
> difficult for this web page to host translated versions of this
> documentation.
> 
> The question is, do the kernel developers want to encourage people who
don't
> speak English to mess with the kernel, any more than they want to
encourage
> kernel developers who don't know C?  Is kernel documentation in
Chinese a
> better idea than a repository of kernel patches in C++?  (Either way,
work
> resulting from this is much less likely than normal to be merged into
the
> kernel.)

IMHO, the ultimate language for the Linux kernel is C language rather
than English.  Nothing prevents one with poor English to write good C
code except for the comment part.  However if the code is really good to
be understood on its own, the problem is not that important then.

Moreover, the case here is not about people who can't read/write in
English completely.  It is to help and to encourage people who have some
difficulty to deal with the community but has the basic English skill to
deal with technical discussion.  That's like why we have disability
services for special people who can do things actually.

- Leo
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