Re: About dpkg translation, please consider i18n when choosing words
(no need to cc, as I read -i18n)
On Τρίτη 14 Ιούνιος 2005 08:28, Scott James Remnant wrote:
> At the disk of being confrontational, I actually don't agree with
> either of you. I think it's important that the English messages in
> dpkg be good, clear English. I do not believe that this should be
> sacrificed for the sake of making it easier for non-English
> speakers -- that's what the entire i18n effort is for, providing
> those people with their own native language version.
I agree completely on this, that's why I sent the message. But by
definition, good clear English, is almost always directly
translatable and with good results. This particular message however
fails to be identified as good clear English, IMHO.
> I'm not sure what your point is here? If there's no direct word in
> your language, isn't choosing a synonym exactly what you ordinarily
> do? That's a pretty common word in British English, and "dict"
> provides many definitions (including the jargon file) that should
> be useful for translations.
Perhaps that's a common word in 'spoken' British English, I can't know
this, but I have read hundreds of books both in literature and in
science (computer & physics) and I have yet to see this word in
there. Maybe I have the wrong set and this word is found abundant
everywhere else... Also, FWIW, I prefer British English over American
English.
> So in effect, I agree that "X is not a clear English message" is a
> valid bug; and I agree that "this string is incomplete, and not
> translatable" is a valid bug (cf. "unable to %s"); but I do not
> agree that "I can't translate this because I don't understand the
> English" is a bug -- that's what dictionaries are for.
Well, while I'm not a native English speaker, I believe I'm quite
proficient in it. If I can't understand one phrase, then I'm curious
what a typical user with an average knowledge of English would
understand from this message...
But anyway, I certainly agree with Christian on this one, you should
work on dpkg development which is much more important and not waste
your time on such time consuming tasks, which are 2nd priority
anyway. Someone, preferably a native English speaker as Christian
suggested should scan the strings for potential bad use of English.
Konstantinos
Reply to: