1293040 - Do not overwrite local comments in localized Silme files

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Webtools Graveyard :: Pontoon, defect, P2)

Description

[Matjaz Horvat [:mathjazz]]

We currently export Silme files (dtd, properties, inc, ini) by:
1. Copying the source (en-US) file.
2. Replacing source strings with translations (if available).
3. Removing lines representing strings without translations.

This process removes any comments localizers might add to their localized files. We need to preserve them.

Comment 1

[Matjaz Horvat [:mathjazz]]

Attachment: German (de) Firefox Aurora (50) comments not present in source (en-US) files

There are 10574 strings in Firefox Aurora (50) as of this moment.

2608 of 10574 strings have comments in German (de) l10n files.

122 of 2608 comments are different than in source (en-US) files.

121 of 122 comments are different because the source comment has been updated (106) or removed (15).

Only 1 is a locale specific comment, located in browser/chrome/browser/preferences/preferences.properties, belonging to key defaultUserContextLabel.

Comment 2

[Matjaz Horvat [:mathjazz]]

Given:

1. the very limited usage of locale comments,
2. the migration to l20n removing them anyways (bug 1288141) and
3. the slowdown of sync this would bring,

the amount of work required for implementation does not justify the benefits.