Re: [Bug-gnulib] 4-gary-version-etc-full-author-string.patch

[Bruno Haible]

Paul Eggert wrote:
> I don't see much point to optimizing this little
> corner of translations if there's a giant sea of line-breaking
> problems elsewhare.

Agreed. You can't expect line-breaking to lead _perfect_ results anyway
on a console. (People who want perfect line breaking use HTML!)

> > What are these "other good arguments"
>
> Basically, what I've already said in this thread.  Obviously I haven't
> convinced you.  (But I thought I had good arguments.  :-)

Well, the only remaining arguments of yours that I haven't dealt with in
your patch are:
  - "incompatible with existing usage"
  - "One program might have three authors with long names, so newlines need
     to be inserted, while a different program might have three authors
     with short names, so no newlines should be inserted."
    See above - linebreaking will only be approximate.
  - "Its complexity may well confuse translators"

Since we continue to disagree on the importance of these points, and I
don't want to encourage the use of the current version-etc.c because IMO
it violates two i18n principles
   1. it marks pieces of sentences, not entire sentences, as
      internationalizable strings, Doesn't work for Ukrainian.
   2. it puts an unnecessary work load on translators.

I have added the patched version-etc to gnulib as a new module 'version-etc-2'.

So users like Gary can choose between the approaches, and we may have some
translator feedback in a few months.

Bruno