Re: [PATCH 2/3] sha1_name: get_sha1_with_context learns to follow symlinks

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 8, 2015, 20:17 UTC
Message-ID: <CAPc5daXmJSfdB_eyQ5ppVp2NhYGZvPChGAyn4p2hEde=4x9EEQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAPig+cRzXQp_afDrOdKrUQ-=DD1P_UcDzs8aSZnTfesd7R20wQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Fri, May 8, 2015 at 12:45 PM, Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com> wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

>> +       if (flags & GET_SHA1_FOLLOW_SYMLINKS && flags & GET_SHA1_ONLY_TO_DIE)
>> +               die(_("internal error: bad flags for get_sha1_with_context"));
>
> There may not be much value in marking an "internal error" string for
> translation.

The whole point of this kind of messages is so that the end users, when they see it trigger, can notify us and then to allow us to identify which die() triggered. It is not just "may not be much value in", but is actively unproductive to make it translatable, even if we ignore the cost to i18n/l10n teams to translate such messages.

By the way, we would want to standardise the string before the colon, so that we can tell users "If you see an error message that begins with 'internal error:', please report that to us---it is a programming error". I think the majority of existing code uses the string "BUG:" for that, and I do not mind using 'internal error:' for that purpose instead, but the important thing is to use just one single string thoughout the codebase, so that the "please report when you see this" message we give the users can be simple.

Thanks.