[wp-hackers] Separating translations from plugin updates

[David Anderson]

> A plugin of mine in the WordPress.org plugin directory has been
> translated into several other languages by some generous people. When
> I'm sent a new translation I add it to the plugin, bump the version
> number, and commit it.
>
> This means I'm unnecessarily pushing out a plugin update for all those
> users who have no need for the new translation. I wonder whether a
> better translation deployment method could be introduced.
>
I think this is another argument for the richer plugin metadata that I 
was talking about a month ago.

If there was richer machine-readable, strict-format metadata, then you 
could indicate "this update is only a language update".

Then within WordPress you could (either by a change to core, or via a 
further plugin to do this job), screen out those that were merely 
language updates, and only spend time on the important ones.

This richer metadata would have to be optional, as there's a huge stash 
of plugins where the authors will never get round to adding it. But the 
presence of the metadata would be informative - it'd be one more data 
point to tell you which plugins are higher quality. Something is better 
than nothing.

But personally I have no idea in what forum I should float this idea, if 
ever I got the idea to write it up with the pros and cons. Who has 
influence over these things? This isn't part of WordPress core, but of 
the wordpress.org API - who is in charge of that? Who do I need to send 
the idea to?

David

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