It is indeed a nice work for a start. I am very much interested to work on that line since i am still learning the code base. I will want you to help me or say orientate me on the work so i can produce a patch. My intentions are clear. I will like to be a part of the git community and contribute code to them from now till further notice. Let me look at the po/README and see if i can find some useful information. Where ever i get stuck, i will ask for help. Regards Alangi Derick Ndimnain On Fri, May 1, 2015 at 7:59 PM, Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi, > > Alangi Derick wrote: > >> This is an example of what i am talking about or what i am trying to >> demonstrate. This is the patch: > > Thanks for giving an example. > > [...] >> --- a/archive-tar.c >> +++ b/archive-tar.c >> @@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ static int stream_blocked(const unsigned char *sha1) >> >> st = open_istream(sha1, &type, &sz, NULL); >> if (!st) >> - return error("cannot stream blob %s", sha1_to_hex(sha1)); >> + return error("Cannot stream blob %s", sha1_to_hex(sha1)); > > This is not about code readability but about the program's output, no? > > Habit is to use lowercase for error messages, to be brief, and to not > include a period at the end since they are not sentences. For > example: > > $ nonexistent-command > bash: nonexistent-command: command not found > > Git tends to follow that practice, too, though it is not completely > consistent about it. > > As a first contribution, I don't think this is a good project to > embark on. It would touch a lot of code, meaning it is difficult to > time to avoid interfering with other patches. It is relatively > low-impact or the impact is hard to demonstrate: consistency is > pleasant, but the capitalization does not seem to be interfering with > the program's usability. Once the work is done, it is easy to > backslide unless there is an automated test to avoid that, which makes > the work more technically complicated. > > If you'd like a project that involves touching a large part of the > codebase, one ongoing project has been to mark human-readable strings > for translation. See "Marking strings for translation" in po/README > for hints about how that works. > > The same timing issues about avoiding conflicting with other people's > work apply there, too, but I'd be happy to help as you go. And the > impact can be pretty big, both in consistency (a mixture of English > and native language output due to incomplete i18n is not a great > experience) and usability (for some, being able to interact with git > in their native language makes using git much easier). > > A search with > > git grep --cached -F -e 'error("' > > finds many files with untranslated strings. > > Such work might lead you to discover unclear code, unclear messages, > or aspects of git's behavior that you'd like to change, which can also > lead to other patches that go in other directions. > > What do you think? > > Thanks, > Jonathan -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html