I'm not used to post in this forum, but I think the problem discussed here is broader then the languages only.
During the developement from 1.6 to 1.7, some strings, needed for 1.6 are deleted from the en_utf8 language pack. The en_utf8 language pack is branched, the translations are all in head.
This causes the disappearing of strings during the developpement of a language pack from one version to the next. Users see them disappearing if they update the language packs on their servers, running a stable version. There is hardly any way to make this undone, since you can not go back to an earlier version of a language pack.
This problem used to be solved in earlier versions of Moodle by not deleting any strings nor help files at all and by creating new help files or strings if the content of a help file or string needs to be altered.
For some reason this rule of thumb isn't respected for this upgrade, causing trouble in the translations. Strings and help files are modified, there by making them not suitable for 1.6, or even deleted, causing English texts to show up in the interface.
So the question is: are we going for branching or are we going to stick (get back
My +/- list:
branching +
- language packs can be smaller since old strings can be removed
- developpers can add or delete and modify safely during developement of a new moodle version
- new languages have no unnecessary translation work since depreciated help files and strings are deleted from the language pack
- no risk of damaging translations for older versions (or for the current stable version as is the case now)
- less language packs available for Moodle, since less maintained language packs will not be usable at all anymore
- because of the possibility of changes, language packs of older Moodle versions will be further away so less usable for a new Moodle version
- new structure necessary for download of correct language version
- modified strings more difficult to find for translation then new strings