Quoting Frans Pop (elendil@planet.nl): > I've been uncomfortable with "please" for quite some time, but could never > really say why, so I did not make a point of it. For the Dutch translation > we mostly just drop them. Any attempt to preserve it makes the translation > sound artificial. You have some point here (particularly the cookbook example: nice catch) Actually, this began as an effort to drop the abuse of imperative form (I always learned that imperative is...what it's name says, a way to point something as "to be done" and "madatory"...up to "this is an order"). I agree that this turned out into an abuse of "please". I'll try to avoid exxagerating at this in English reviews (you should show up sometimes on dle, I'm sure you would help improving things even more). > > I'll use the polite form in the French translation... > > Of course you should do what's correct in French for your translation; > different languages have different requirements. But it may be worth > checking a few French cookery-books ;-) Most actually use the infinitive form (which is possible in French but not in English). But, yeah, I agree that very few (if any) use what I call the "polite" form as "Veuillez faire fondre le beurre". > > (please) Select the country that will be used, for example, to select > > a default locale and time zone. > > IMO that's a lot less clear for users. An instruction does not have to be > literally correct in 100% of cases. It has to convey the correct > intention. I'll apparently have hard times convincing you on that matter... > In the case of country selection it is IMO essential to make users > installing their own system (people not doing multiple installations, but > using the installer only once) pick the correct choice on the first > attempt in order to avoid incorrect locales (especially at default > priority) or time zones (especially as that is not even displayed at > default priority for countries that only have one). > > "The country where you live" is IMO by far the simplest, clearest and most > intuitive description to achieve that. Well, OK, I'm not entirely convinced but I apparently can't propose a sufficiently correct alternative to makje you change your mind..:-) Could we summarize on what we have now?
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