On 14/06/2005, at 10:07 AM, Eddy Petrisor wrote:
Wrt to the msgid: gobble replaced file `%.255s'[..]KonstantinosI agree with Konstantinos on this issue (and his proposal) and I would like to add a few other remarks that I gathered during the painful translation of dpkg before sarge's release: (I left my angry comments in there, please do not take them as a personal offence)
I agree emphatically with both Konstantinos and Eddy on the barrier to accurate translation created by a low standard of English language in the original strings. I am a native speaker of English, with a fair amount of background in the language, and I have difficulty understanding quite a few strings, not because of their technical content (that is fine, I can enquire) but because they are so badly- expressed. It must be even harder for the vast majority of translators (I must be an exception, since a native-language translator is far preferable) for whom English is not their native language.
Please, developers, remember that you are trying to _communicate with the user_, either directly in your English, or via your translators interpreting it. Maximize your chances of effective communicatỉon by being clear and accurate, and by using natural, everyday language.
from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhóm Việt hóa phần mềm tự do)
Clytie Siddall--Renmark, in the Riverland of South Australia Ở thành phố Renmark, tại miền sông của Nam Úc