I recently fixed a bug (14901) and attached some patches to the bug
ticket. Included were some changes to languages/messages/MessagesEn.php.
Following the directions given at
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/
Localisation#Changing_existing_messages, I contacted #mediawiki-i18n and
asked them for instructions how to proceed with the internationalization
part of the work.
After looking over my changes, they pointed out that my new message text
violated some requirements, specifically:
+ I had used "/n" rather than literal newlines in the text
+ I had put newlines in front of some messages
+ I had put trailing whitespace in some messages
Since I was (and am) unfamiliar with MW internationalization workflow and
since this text is destined for email messages, not display on a wiki
page, I was puzzled by these requirements. However, it was explained to
me that internationalization occurs by display of the text on
translate.net, which means the text must conform to web page display
rules. Consequently, the problems specified above interfere with the
translation work.
I understand I need to fix these problems. However, before proceeding I
wonder if there are other constraints that I must observe. I have read
the material at
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Localisation, but did not
find the above constraints mentioned there. Is there another place where
they are specified?
--
-- Dan Nessett