Board.KolibriOS.org

I've recently read that English speaking devs find it difficult that supporting documentation is only in Russian.

If you agree with that, could you explain to me what you mean?

Are you already an active dev and facing issues? Or are you wanting to contribute, but find you are limited by a language barrier?

I guess I was a little shocked to read it. So now I am just curious. I am presenting no alternative argument or anything like that. I just would like to better understand the issue.

Asmxygen is pretty English friendly.

I always thought a source distro of KolibriOS would be nice. Something that can run from binaries only built by FASM. Then the Additions ISO has the foppy ram disk and extra ASM source files. Although it would take some know how to manually build the floppy ram disk (build the disk from scratch), you could easily replace files with ones you built yourself.

Then based on something like that, divers language documentation could be built up for the more novice developer.
But obviously this aim is a far target, when compared to the github way of things. And it may be a far cry from what the core team members would have any interest in.

But its my two cents, when looking at bringing in new devs.

I have a hard time telling whats going on behind the scenes of opensource OS projects. But of ones available, it seams to me that Kolibri has pretty good potential for "raising" interesting developers. And it is one of the few that has the potential to "continually" support dated hardware, without becoming a retro project.

Ironically, in my view, a true opensource happened in Russia before GNU and RMS. Similar to the S-100 bus computer groups in the US, Russia has been a pretty good source of homebrew shared source computing. I don't have a clue how the devs here feel, but I myself envision Kolibri in that kind of light. Its almost rebellious.

The following is my attempt at ironic humor, so don't take me seriously. But for a different kind of opensource, maybe the developing language should be in Russian.

DreamZ80 wrote:I
Are you already an active dev and facing issues? Or are you wanting to contribute, but find you are limited by a language barrier?

Lot of documentation is in english. If you want develop apps/modify kernel and have language problem - just ask. Personally , my russian is still poor, albeit I have a few lessons in primary school
Greetings !!

Hi Macgub,

I agree. There seems to be plenty of English documentation.

My Russian isn't great. But since what "might" be only in Russian pertains to technical subjects, its not to hard to figure it out. I've done that for years, from Russian documents, forums, etc.

If I was trying to make out why someone preferred a certain approach, over a different one, there is a good chance it would take time for me to figure out the concept. So obviously I've never been able to contribute anything to discussion.

The biggest problem I've ever had, was when using something that didn't support Russian characters. But that's more when focused on Dos type projects. I suppose if you don't have a way to translate words, you don't know, it could get harry. But I've just always assumed that this is something non-English speaking people have had to deal with for a long time.

What would be harder is commenting something aimed at someone only understanding Russian. My attempt at writing something useful, in Russian, would be terrible. But I personally haven't contributed anything, outside my own experiments.

I'd have a tough time trying to converse in the Main forum. That's why I posted this. I wanted to understand the issue mentioned.

As far as just asking someone to explain something, you are right. But from what I have seen, in many projects, people don't always like to do that. Especially if they are going to have another question right after that.

In a mentor situation, I would assume people should just expect to have those kinds of conversations.

For "some" people, outside mentor situations, I can see them not liking it. Some projects go out of their way to make it easy to avoid human contact. There are plenty of reasons for that. Often "some" devs feel too busy to answer every question. Another reason is that someone is shaping their project for "anyone" to easily contribute, hoping to get more help.

This is the post that originally inspired my curiosity

Hi DreamZ80!
I understand your point of view.
Personally I dont understand many, if Russian texts are long, full of words not similar to Polish(I am from Poland)/English words. I think Zyryllic knowledge is crucial. Typing in Zyryllic - for me is hard task - I have standard English keyboard, being owner of Zyrylic keyboard - will make task easier. But I met people from Ukraine(a lot in my country) - they type on standard us keyboard in zyrylic. Besides this character/font problem - just like in other languages.
Former times when i tried make some applications for MenuetOS some people telling (kind of joke) - I communicate with other programmers in assembly language.
If you make some valuable for people work - for sure they will talk with you - telling he enjoy your soft/contribution/(fnancial?)support..
Remember - i think on main Russian forum people may dont know English language - so cannot/get trouble reply your post - such situation could occur also.
Communicate standard/ non stndard way is barrier for all. In Russia even space beetwen railway track is diffrent than in countries in West Europe. At Iron Curtain times radio/television(PAL/SECAM) banwidh/standard was diffrent/curtain side dependent also..
Regards !!

Oh God... Google translate connecting people, don't you know? The actual problem is that many people can't speak correctly on their own language, otherwise Google translates whole sentences pretty correct.

macgub wrote:Former times when i tried make some applications for MenuetOS some people telling (kind of joke) - I communicate with other programmers in assembly language.

So true

Even as a joke, this is very much what I am talking about. If you are focused on trying to do something, you only need some words to stand out. You will be looking for anything that matches the target area. Then you look at the code. From there you can, most often, tell what it is or is not. If it is a local copy, I add comments that help "me" for next time. It is a really good way of getting into the code base. But I understand that it may be considered the "hard way".

Remember - i think on main Russian forum people may dont know English language - so cannot/get trouble reply your post - such situation could occur also.

I think your statement is very important for people to remember. Sometimes when people are focused on a problem, they have a hard time thinking about the whole situation. That is a problem on large projects, even when everyone uses the same language. That is part of the reason they develop a "code of conduct". Wrapping your head around the whole situation can be frustrating.

Pathoswithin wrote:Oh God... Google translate connecting people, don't you know? The actual problem is that many people can't speak correctly on their own language, otherwise Google translates whole sentences pretty correct.

Oh, yes! Many times I re-read and re-read something I write. The next day I read it again and it is terrible.

It is good Google translate is unable to feel irritated.