> 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.
>
> 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.)
>
> Setting aside for the moment version skew and coverage issues when
> translating Documentation, which aren't really serious blocking issues, my
> question is this: If developers aren't fluent enough with English to
> follow the documentation, how can they follow any of the technical
> discussions necessary to merge their patches back into the mainstream
> kernel? Doesn't this encourage the creation of patches that can't easily
> be merged back into the kernel?
>
> It could be that the answer is "no, it's fine". I don't feel qualified to
> make this decision. It's very easy for me to accept contributed
> translations and put them up, but I'd like some kind of consensus from the
> kernel developers that I SHOULD do this. How much use is a Chinese version
> of a HOWTO that tells people how to interact with an English community?
>
> Could somebody more qualified than me speak up on this one so I know what
> to do?
>
> Rob
>
> P.S. I meant to comment when this topic first came up last week
> [http://kerneltrap.org/node/8365] but my laptop's hard drive died and I
> lost the link. (Along with any chance of this being a particularly
> productive month for me...)
