Comments on: Language barriers and bugs http://www.squarefree.com/2009/07/18/language-barriers-and-bugs/ Jesse Ruderman on Firefox, security, and more Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:56:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Gen Kanai http://www.squarefree.com/2009/07/18/language-barriers-and-bugs/comment-page-1/#comment-5570 Gen Kanai Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:49:58 +0000 http://www.squarefree.com/?p=491#comment-5570 The Mozilla community in Japan handles it like this: There's a Japanese language bugzilla http://bugzilla.mozilla.gr.jp/ where Japanese Mozilla users file bugs in Japanese. Other Japanese users test/confirm the bugs, and Masayuki Nakano (who works on i18n issues primarily) takes the confirmed bugs and moves them over to the main English-language Bugzilla. It works pretty well, but perhaps the negatives would be that it takes time for a bug found in the Japanese community to get filed in the US Bugzilla, and perhaps that this particular process needs to have someone pretty fluent in the codebase (in this case, Masayuki) who can answer questions up front and determine which bugs are relevant to be filed in the English Bugzilla. The Mozilla community in Japan handles it like this:

There’s a Japanese language bugzilla http://bugzilla.mozilla.gr.jp/ where Japanese Mozilla users file bugs in Japanese. Other Japanese users test/confirm the bugs, and Masayuki Nakano (who works on i18n issues primarily) takes the confirmed bugs and moves them over to the main English-language Bugzilla. It works pretty well, but perhaps the negatives would be that it takes time for a bug found in the Japanese community to get filed in the US Bugzilla, and perhaps that this particular process needs to have someone pretty fluent in the codebase (in this case, Masayuki) who can answer questions up front and determine which bugs are relevant to be filed in the English Bugzilla.

]]> By: Nick http://www.squarefree.com/2009/07/18/language-barriers-and-bugs/comment-page-1/#comment-5569 Nick Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:43:53 +0000 http://www.squarefree.com/?p=491#comment-5569 The truth is that for a bug to be noticed, it is not enough to just file it. When one does that, no one notices it, or pays any attention. Especially if the bug is not written in very good English or is about a feature that is not easy to test for English speakers (e.g. Arabic writing). The truth is that for a bug to be noticed, it is not enough to just file it. When one does that, no one notices it, or pays any attention. Especially if the bug is not written in very good English or is about a feature that is not easy to test for English speakers (e.g. Arabic writing).

]]> By: How Mozilla finds crash bugs at Mozilla Security Blog http://www.squarefree.com/2009/07/18/language-barriers-and-bugs/comment-page-1/#comment-5568 How Mozilla finds crash bugs at Mozilla Security Blog Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:53:29 +0000 http://www.squarefree.com/?p=491#comment-5568 [...] bugs requires substantial effort from users, and requires both English-language and technical skills, so we prefer not to rely exclusively on user-reported bugs. Luckily, crashes [...] [...] bugs requires substantial effort from users, and requires both English-language and technical skills, so we prefer not to rely exclusively on user-reported bugs. Luckily, crashes [...]

]]> By: Axel Hecht http://www.squarefree.com/2009/07/18/language-barriers-and-bugs/comment-page-1/#comment-5566 Axel Hecht Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:35:19 +0000 http://www.squarefree.com/?p=491#comment-5566 I'm hoping that some intl bugs get earlier discovery when we have localized builds on a nightly update channel. That'll make it more interesting for local geeks to follow our development more closely and might make it more obvious to them to file a bug 'cause it's less of a "someone else probably caught that one already". Regarding getting bugs on file, the machine-translation piece might help us at least for some languages. Making filing bugs more obvious might be good enough, and to encourage users to file bugs in their language. To make them useful for our developers, cloning the bug with a MT of the original report might be a good start. I'm not sure if we need a localized UI for that, too. I usually think that when people claim they need to get the UI translated to be able to do ABC, the UI is likely too complex for people of that technical skill in English, too. So we might get more bang for the buck making that process more user friendly than trying to get a cumbersome process in many languages. I’m hoping that some intl bugs get earlier discovery when we have localized builds on a nightly update channel. That’ll make it more interesting for local geeks to follow our development more closely and might make it more obvious to them to file a bug ’cause it’s less of a “someone else probably caught that one already”.

Regarding getting bugs on file, the machine-translation piece might help us at least for some languages. Making filing bugs more obvious might be good enough, and to encourage users to file bugs in their language. To make them useful for our developers, cloning the bug with a MT of the original report might be a good start.

I’m not sure if we need a localized UI for that, too. I usually think that when people claim they need to get the UI translated to be able to do ABC, the UI is likely too complex for people of that technical skill in English, too. So we might get more bang for the buck making that process more user friendly than trying to get a cumbersome process in many languages.

]]> By: Andrew http://www.squarefree.com/2009/07/18/language-barriers-and-bugs/comment-page-1/#comment-5563 Andrew Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:45:48 +0000 http://www.squarefree.com/?p=491#comment-5563 The Windows 7 team recently published a blog post about this: See the section titled “Understanding feedback from around the world” on http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/07/07/engineering-windows-7-for-a-global-market.aspx. In short, bugs can be submitted in any language, and machine translation is used to get a sense of the bug reports for triage. The Windows 7 team recently published a blog post about this: See the section titled “Understanding feedback from around the world” on http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/07/07/engineering-windows-7-for-a-global-market.aspx. In short, bugs can be submitted in any language, and machine translation is used to get a sense of the bug reports for triage.

]]> By: D.J. Capelis http://www.squarefree.com/2009/07/18/language-barriers-and-bugs/comment-page-1/#comment-5562 D.J. Capelis Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:13:16 +0000 http://www.squarefree.com/?p=491#comment-5562 (Sorry by the way, for the mangled grammar and terribly composed sentences in the last comment. I just got up.) (Sorry by the way, for the mangled grammar and terribly composed sentences in the last comment. I just got up.)

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