Virtual Code Sprint on Internationalization in Drupal Core

Agenda

Day 1, Feb. 3: Scope and queue clearing

• Introductions
• Set goals for sprint: identify development priorities
• Discuss and plan each of the selected new development focuses
• Divide up patch responsibility

Core committer session with Angie after 03:00 GMT, 1 hr.

• Review bug fixes in patch queue, work through remaining issues with fixes.

Day 2, Feb. 4:

• Continue work in small teams on major development priorities.
• Fix identified issues in bug fixes and tweaks.

Core committer session, 2 hrs

• Review bug fixes in patch queue, work through remaining issues with
  fixes, commit any that are ready.
• Introduce major new development issues, get initial feedback.

Six day break

• Individuals/small groups who took on particular patches continue work on them, aim
  to post patches.

Day 3, Feb. 10:

• Presentations and review of current patch status
• Group work on new development patches and accompanying tests

Core committer session, 2 hrs

• Review bug fixes in patch queue, work through remaining issues with
  fixes, commit any that are ready.
• Review one of the new development patches.

Day 4, Feb. 11:

• Group work on new development patches and accompanying tests
• Planning for further work

Core committer session, 2 hrs

• Review bug fixes in patch queue, work through remaining issues with
  fixes, commit any that are ready.
• Review one of the new development patches.

Invitation

Planning is underway for a virtual code sprint focusing on internationalization improvements for Drupal core. And you're invited!

Dates: Feb. 3 - 4 and 10 - 11.
Location: wherever you have a computer and internet access.

Drupal 6 core saw major improvements in multilingual support. We can follow up on that great start by fixing lingering issues and filling in new functionality.

The idea is to do two two-day sprints, with a week between them for working on patches. In the first sprint, we'll aim to clear away as many of the outstanding bugs as we can and start to map out the most important new features. Between sprints, developers can collaborate to push ahead with coding new development patches. Then in the second sprint we can wrap off bugfixes and collectively refine new features.

We'll create an IRC chat room for the duration of the sprints.

Both Drupal founder Dries and Drupal 7 maintainer Angie have confirmed they can allocate a few hours to review and apply patches produced in the sprint.

Other Drupal developers lined up for the sprint include Internationalization gurus Gábor Hojtsy (very busy, but he'll review patches as he can) and Jose A Reyero, stella, catch, nedjo and Roger López .

In preparation for the sprint, we've tagged a number of issues with "i18n sprint". You can see the queue here: http://drupal.org/project/issues/3060/term/301.

Sprint logistics

The sprint will be held in IRC in #drupal-i18n. We'll also move at times into #drupal-devel when we need to find other developers to get tips on particular problems.

If you're new to IRC, see this page: http://drupal.org/irc

And here's a quick start guide if you use Firefox:

1. Install the chatzilla firefox extension (Tools > AddOns > Get AddOns).
2. After you restart firefox, choose Tools > ChatZilla
3. Enter the following commands in the little textbox at the bottom of the chatzilla window, hitting Enter after each command:

/attach freenode
/join #drupal-i18n

Then just type what you want to say.

Sign up!

If you think you can participate, please sign up to this event. See below for suggestions on ways people can participate and also the drupal.org handbook page Roles at code sprints, http://drupal.org/node/362962, for ideas on ways to participate and how to prepare. Please also post a comment below if you have ideas about how you'd like to contribute or particular priorities or issues you want to work on. Thanks!

Recommended reading

1. Issues in http://drupal.org/project/issues/3060/term/301.
2. Localization API documentation at http://drupal.org/node/322729.
3. Multilingual support section in module developers' guide: http://drupal.org/node/303984.

Issues

We've added a handbook page, Internationalization Improvements, http://drupal.org/node/362922, as a place to identify and summarize some key issues to tackle.

Ways to participate

There will be a number of ways to participate in the sprint--not all of them needing coding skills. Some are:

1. Plan solutions. For each major issue we tackle, we'll need to map out approaches.
2. Code patches. We'll need lots of developers. There are enough open issues to tackle that we should be able to keep everyone busy.
3. Document patches. It's very time consuming for core committers to have to wade through all the comments on a patch to get an idea of why it's needed and what it does. We'll need some clear headed people to provide brief summaries of patches.
4. Write automated simpletest. Many internationalization issues are quirky and hard to test or reproduce. If you know anything about writing simpletests, we need you! Don't worry if you're not so familiar with the localization or translation code in core. We can match you up with someone who is.
5. Do manual testing. Manual testing is also needed. Are you familiar with multilingual functionality in Drupal? Running proposed patches through their paces would help a lot. Do you manage an internationalized Drupal 6 website, particularly one without a lot of customization? Testing patches against an updated test version of your site could be invaluable.
6. Write patch reviews. As we collectively discuss issues, capturing some of the results and summarizing them in the relevant issues will help keep the community up to speed.