Re: [RANT] French translation for debconf templates stucked at 90% : analysis

[Miles Bader <miles@lsi.nec.co.jp>]

Nicolas Bertolissio <nico.bertol-no-spam@free.fr> writes:
>> They are just labels, which people learn the meaning of in context.
>> For error messages, this wouldn't be so good, but for this usage, it's fine.
>
> Sorry, I don't agree.
>
> These are label but have no meaning for a non-english speaker, so they
> have to be translated.  This is at least the way we do things in French.

Whatever; French != Japanese.  Indeed, they in some sense represent
opposite ends of the spectrum -- Japanese are notably enthusiastic about
adopting foreign words in a very ad-hoc way, whereas French are famous
for being, um, anti-non-French.

I suspect that Microsoft actually did think about this issue BTW; e.g.,
the error messages &c on Japanese Windows are not unnaturally full of
transliterated English words.  Probably this process was not perfect,
especially in the beginning, and early computer adopters probably had a
much broader knowledge of English than the average person, but by now a
precedent has been established -- computer users are _used_ to these
terms, and would probably be more confused if they changed.

-Miles
-- 
Fast, small, soon; pick any 2.