translations: should the commit messages too be translated? #80

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GiteaMirror · 2026-02-17T11:43:18-06:00

GiteaMirror commented

2026-02-17 11:43:18 -06:00

Originally created by @Artoria2e5 on GitHub (Sep 10, 2019).

Translating commit message guidelines is like translating every other programming guidebook: should comments, variable names, or other programming messages like commits be written in US English or in your native tongue? Proponents of US English say that it is the universal language, that localized messages may require additional or separate checkers, and that the words are supposed to be basic anyway. On the other hand, folks writing in their native tongue simply feel more comfortable doing so, and they tend to come up with better wording for commit messages and variable names in a language they are familiar with anyway.

I performed a survey of example commit languages for translations available in the repo:

Translation	Commit language
fr	fr, but en-compatible tags
hy	en
id	en
it	en
ko	en
pt-br	pt-br, but en-compatible tags
ru	en
zh-tw	en
zh	en

The overwhelming majority seems to prefer English commit languages, but a few are using their languages while keeping the English-language type and breaking tags.

Originally created by @Artoria2e5 on GitHub (Sep 10, 2019). Translating commit message guidelines is like translating every other programming guidebook: should comments, variable names, or other programming messages like commits be written in US English or in your native tongue? Proponents of US English say that it is *the* universal language, that localized messages may require additional or separate checkers, and that the words are supposed to be basic anyway. On the other hand, folks writing in their native tongue simply feel more comfortable doing so, and they tend to come up with better wording for commit messages and variable names in a language they are familiar with anyway. I performed a survey of example commit languages for translations available in the repo: Translation | Commit language ------------ | ------------- fr|fr, but en-compatible tags hy|en id|en it|en ko|en pt-br|pt-br, but en-compatible tags ru|en zh-tw|en zh|en The overwhelming majority seems to prefer English commit languages, but a few are using their languages while keeping the English-language type and breaking tags.

GiteaMirror commented

2026-02-17 11:43:20 -06:00

@damianopetrungaro commented on GitHub (Sep 12, 2019):

Probably we can use English as main language for the examples, but I am open to change idea.

Any tought about it?

@damianopetrungaro commented on GitHub (Sep 12, 2019): Probably we can use English as main language for the examples, but I am open to change idea. Any tought about it?

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Reference: github-starred/conventionalcommits.org#80