English in Script Comments
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Should this site require all script comments to be in English?
I realize that this is an international forum. However, I would guess that English is the most common language.
I have recently seen several scripts in which the description was in English, but all the internal script comments were in Spanish. I have nothing against Spanish, except that I can't read it
If the script is at all complicated, I will not waste any time with it if the comments are not in English. And I will not use any script that I can't understand.
It would seem that if the author can speak/write English, it would be easy for him/her to translate the comments. This would be a great benefit to all.
What do you think?
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Interesting idea. AFAIK, none of the site owners are bilinugal, so comments in any language are unreadabvle by us. I typically don't review the scripts when they are submitted because honestly I don't have time.
I'm ok with other language comments, but they most likely mean the script may not be used by those that cannot read them. I hate to require them, but I do like that you brought up the issue.
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This site is a great and free resource. That means take it or leave it. Nobody "owes" you or anyone else comments in any particular language. Code is shared on a voluntary basis, but it is unlikely that it was written for you.
Having said that, I can write whatever I please in the comments. I can promise you the sun, the moon and the stars in the comments. The code could simply truncate all your tables.
My $0.02.
P
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I dont think we want to require English. For now I'd rather have users contribute in whatever way they can, realizing that posts/scripts in languages other than English will tend to be overlooked by readers who are not bilingual. Quality of scripts is a different issue, I'd definitely recommend that you review scripts to be sure you know the impact before you run them, regardless of language used.
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I'd prefer the site be open to all... if a comment might be hard to read, posters could make a note of the comment language... if it's covered by babelfish, we should be ok:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
-Mike
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Steve mentioned "I typically don't review the scripts when they are submitted because honestly I don't have time". I'm sure this is true of the other site owners as well.
Would it be beneficial to the community as whole if there was a group of reviewers that performed this function? I'm sure in a community of over 160,000 we could cover most of the languages.
I'd be happy to put my hat in the ring as a reviewer.
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Colt 45 - the original point and click interface
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Well, requiring English was/is just a suggestion. It's not personal -- it was meant to benefit most members.
Just to be clear, I didn't say, nor do I expect, that anyone "owes" me personally anything in this forum. The only thing I "expect" from this forum is clear communication. If it becomes more trouble to understand the articles and scripts than they are worth, then I'll just go elsewhere. There are plenty of good resources on the 'net.
Requiring English as a standard is like any other standard -- it imposes some, hopefully acceptable, restrictions for the greater benefit of all. Some people don't like any standards or restrictions. Their design is usually non-existent, and their code often resembles spaghetti.
Like most things in life, a good balance is advisable.Perhaps an alternative is to not require, but suggest/encourage that English be used throughout. Advising the author that his/her article/script will receive broader use, and maybe higher ratings, if it is in English.
Even more important is Phill's suggestion -- review of articles/scripts. I had assumed (without any basis for doing so) that all the publications on this site received some kind of review. I know this is a large burden for the site to provide for a free service. And it implies a lot of responsibility. Since you already have a mechanism for connecting articles/scripts to forum reviews, perhaps one approach would be to mark the article/script as "Under Review" until people have had a chance to review and comment. Of course at least a top-level review is desired prior to any kind of publication to ensure that the article/script is appropriate for this site, contains no offensive language (this is where English comes in -- the author could write some very offensive things in a foreign language and you would never know it if you can't read the language), and contains no obviously harmful scripts like wholesale deletion without proper checks and comments.
In any case I hope we can have a good discussion of these ideas without getting personal or rude. I look forward to your comments.
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I too would like to see comments in English (or multiple languages) simply to make it easier to follow the script. Code is code is code - we can all probably follow code and make sense out of it, but there are tricks and shortcuts which can make coding easier and faster but hard to understand.
Butch -
We do give everything the once over to prevent items from being posted that are irrelevant or worse, and we attempt to see that they make sense/are correct. That's not quite the same as certifying that running a script will do no harm. It's just not realistic for us to be able to provide that type of no harm guarantee with the resource we have. We'll see about putting a better disclaimer in place so that users know.
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