[Submission] LangLint — String-Level Translation and Linting of Code Comments and Docstrings for Research Software #268
Description
Submitting Author: @HzaCode
All current maintainers: @HzaCode
Package Name: LangLint
One-Line Description of Package: A Rust-powered, code-aware toolkit that extracts, validates, and translates multilingual strings (comments, docstrings, string literals) in scientific software.
Repository Link: https://github.com/HzaCode/Langlint
Version submitted: v1.0.0
EiC: @yeelauren
Editor: TBD
Reviewer 1: TBD
Reviewer 2: TBD
Archive: TBD
JOSS DOI: TBD
Version accepted: TBD
Date accepted (month/day/year): TBD
Code of Conduct & Commitment to Maintain Package
- I agree to abide by [pyOpenSci's Code of Conduct][PyOpenSciCodeOfConduct] during the review process and in future interactions in spaces supported by pyOpenSci should it be accepted.
- I have read and will commit to package maintenance after the review as per the [pyOpenSci Policies Guidelines][Commitment].
Description
LangLint ensures multilingual consistency at the string level inside code—comments, docstrings, and string literals—rather than full documents. It safely extracts human-language units from parsed code, validates language consistency, and optionally translates them while protecting executable syntax.
The core is implemented in Rust (PyO3/maturin) for significant speedups (observed 10–50× vs. a prior Python implementation). The test suite runs offline by default (using a mock translator) for reproducibility. Optional remote providers (e.g., OpenAI, DeepL, Google Cloud Translate, LibreTranslate) are opt-in and require explicit user configuration; usage is documented to comply with each provider’s Terms of Service.
LangLint integrates cleanly with CI/CD (GitHub Actions, pre-commit) so teams can enforce multilingual consistency much like they enforce style with Ruff.
Scope
- Data extraction
- Data processing/munging
- Data validation and testing
- Workflow automation
Domain Specific
- Geospatial
- Education
Community Partnerships
- Astropy
- Pangeo
Why it fits the scope
- Target audience: Research software engineers and scientists maintaining multilingual codebases where comments/docstrings/strings are not all in English.
- Scientific applications: Improves readability, reproducibility, and FAIR compliance of research code by standardizing the linguistic layer that explains methods and assumptions.
- Other packages: Linters (Ruff/Flake8) focus on syntax/style; translation libraries focus on free text. LangLint uniquely bridges both—it is code-aware, extracting only translatable string units and validating/transforming them without altering code semantics.
- Pre-submission enquiry: N/A (initial submission).
Technical checks
This package:
- does not violate the Terms of Service of any service it interacts with.
Notes: Tests/CI run offline using amocktranslator. Any remote translators are opt-in, require explicit configuration (e.g., API keys), and documented to be used in accordance with each provider’s ToS. - uses an [OSI approved license][OsiApprovedLicense] (MIT).
- contains a README with instructions for installing the development version.
- includes documentation with examples for all functions.
- contains a tutorial with examples of its essential functions and uses.
- has a test suite.
- has continuous integration setup (GitHub Actions).
Benchmarking: We provide (or will provide) a simple, reproducible benchmark script (e.g.,bench/) to substantiate performance claims.
Publication Options
- Do you wish to automatically submit to the [Journal of Open Source Software][JournalOfOpenSourceSoftware]? If so:
Note: JOSS accepts pyOpenSci’s review. We will link this issue in the JOSS submission and indicate that the package has undergone pyOpenSci review.
Are you OK with Reviewers Submitting Issues and/or pull requests to your Repo Directly?
- Yes I am OK with reviewers submitting requested changes as issues/PRs to my repo. Reviewers will then link to the issues in their submitted review.
Confirm each of the following:
- I have read the [author guide](https://www.pyOpenSci.org/software-peer-review/how-to/author-guide.html).
- I expect to maintain this package for at least 2 years and can help find a replacement for the maintainer (team) if needed.