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I have a small Python project (a few hundred lines) in a Git repository. I started it myself, and wrote it in French. That is, all identifiers, comments, and text strings.

Now, in order for other, non-French speaking people, to be able to use it, I am thinking of translating the project in English. What would be a good strategy to do so ?

  • Should I just create extra commit(s) at the tip of my main branch, and translate the whole thing?
  • Or should I re-create the history and translate each commit separately? If so, what workflow would you recommend ?

For what it is worth, I have kept the history linear until now. Also, I'm pretty sure there are no clones of the repository other that the ones on my computer and on my Gitorious account. So, for that matter, I don't think it would be a problem to rewrite history.

All input is welcome: remarks, suggestions, questions. Thanks !

Axel
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    Are the old commits important, is it useful for somebody new to understand when a particular feature was introduced or when a particular API changed? I'm guessing from your problem description that the answer is no. Do your commit messages provide background notes about your implementation details? Perhaps the most important of those notes would be more useful in a README or something. – tripleee Sep 08 '11 at 21:51
  • No, they are not that important, and the comments contain little technical information. – Axel Sep 09 '11 at 11:46

1 Answers1

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I think I would just use the first option and create extra commits.
IMO, the current state of the code is what counts for current development. If the current version of the code is all in English, who cares if there are old versions with French variable names in the history?

The only issue that I can think of would be when a non-French speaking developer will have to browse through the old "French" commits (trying to understand how something certain works, or why it was done the way it is...whatever).
French variable names and comments (or even commit messages!) will make it harder for that developer to understand what's going on.

On the other hand...who knows if this will ever happen? If the project is not that big now, there will probably not be that much French commits. So if there will ever be any issue where someone who does not speak French will have to browse the French history, they can just ask you for clarification.

Christian Specht
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  • Thank you for your answer. I'll just do it this way, and commit the translated code on my master branch. – Axel Sep 09 '11 at 12:00