Christian Perrier wrote:
> I just finished a general work on french translations for (mostly)
> templates used in d-i.
>
> The goal was, after seeing my first tests of the installer, to get
> some consistency in the various templates and menus shown to the use
> during installation.
>
> During this work (with the help of Denis who commited my changes while
> I posted them to debian-l10n-french), I made some assumptions?:
Let me read this in the context of rules for English templates (although
I do not think you meant it that way) and see how much sense it makes.
> -menu entries use the infinitive form?: "Ex?cuter un shell" instead of
> "Ex?cution d'un shell"...thus "(To) execute to shell"....Thanks to
> Denis, these are now easy to find in the *.po files
Right, "Execute a shell" instead of "Execution of a shell". This is
correct for English too, I think. Most of the English menu items should
already use the former form.
> -Boolean templates
> -the short form is a question which should be kept short. This
> sometimes needs to make telegraphic-style phrases as french
> usually uses more room than english
>
> -the long form should NOT include a question
Agreed. Note that this will look wrong under current cdebconf's newt
frontend, but the frontend can be fixed. (#215582)
So:
Description: Format c:?
You've picked the c: drive for your linux install. Now it must be
formatted. This operation will destroy the data on your first hard drive.
Not:
Description: Formatting of drive
You've picked the c: drive for your linux install. Now it must be
formatted. This operation will destroy the data on your first hard
drive. Format c:?
> -String templates (as well as Select/Multi-Select templates)
> -the short form is a prompt and NOT a title. I follow Joey's wishes
> about this and the planned/suggested modifications to cdebconf for
> having it behave like debconf.
> I prohibit question style prompts ("IP Address?") in favour of
> "opened" prompts ("Adresse IP").
That's interesting, it may not apply in English. I think if just
prompting for a value, it does make sense to use the name of the value
as the prompt. Sticking a question mark at the end does not make it a
question. But "What is your IP address?" could also be appropriate.
> I do NOT use colons at the end (but maybe should I??)
I'm not sure about colons. They are unnecessary in the newt frontend,
but may be necessary to separate the prompt from the text entry space on
other frontends.
> -the long form is a description of what is expected. No question
> here and always phrases. Telegraphic style prohibited
>
> -Notes
> -the short form should be considered as a *title*. Here also I
> follow Joey's suggestions...hoping I understood him well
>
> -the long form is what will be displayed as a more detailed
> explanation of the note. Phrases, no telegraphic style.
All much the same I think.
I have some other stylistic points for the installer. I think it's a bad
idea for a template in one part to refer to some action to be carried
out later in some other part. For example, if dhcp fails, the dialog
currently says something about 'at the main menu, select "detect
hardware and load installer modules"'. This is annoying, both because
that menu items has changed its name since this text was written, and
because you're asking the user to remember what to do. Instead it could
just do the action for the user.
We should strive for putting enough information in the short
description/prompts that the user does not need to read the whole long
description to get the essense of the question. Because users will not
always do that. So instead of this:
Description: Do you want to do that?
I can do a) b) c) d) e) ..
Use:
Description: Format hard drive, walk dog, do dishes, and achieve world peace?
...
We should avoid unnecessary jargon and wordiness in a long description
when we can, unless it is necessary to keep the meaning clear.
I think we need to agree on such stupid stylistic matters as one space
or two at the end of a sentence. I have my preferences, but making it
consistent is more important.
We should agree on a voice for the installer to use. Some questions use
"I will do this", some use "Do you want to do this". I prefer to not
anthromorphise computer programs, and avoid the "I".
We need to decide on a term to use for the installer itself in text
displayed inside it. Should we call it "the Debian installer" and
require big changes by other derived distributions, or should it be "the
installer"? Or "the debian-installer"? I prefer the second of these.
We should decide on a term to use for udebs in the installer. Reports
are that "installer modules" is confusing to users; it also leads to
clunky phrases like "install installer modules". Or should that be
"install Debian installer modules"? You see the problem. There has been
a proposal to call them something else, I forget what.
Any more?
We should have all the templates reviewed by native English speakers who
are not developers of the installer. Distance lends perspective. I've
cc'd the debian-i18n-english list. Since that list operates mostly by
critiquing text sent to the list, we could, after we agree on our manual
of style, send it to the list plus a few templates a day, for a few
weeks.
--
see shy jo
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