Re: please indicate where messages in debconf dialogue are worth a bug reportx
(Continued, still with reduced resources)
>[...]
> #. Type: boolean
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:11001
> msgid "Please choose whether you want to keep that choice anyway."
There's room for improvement here. I don't like the "choose/choice"
repetition, and there's no need for this focus on feelings...
> s/ to keep that choice anyway / to accept your input nevertheless
You aren't the one accepting input! The simplest approach would be:
msgid "Please confirm if it should be accepted."
> #. Type: select
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:12002
> msgid "General type of mail configuration:"
> msgstr "Allgemeine Art der Konfiguration:"
>
> Within the context of 'postfix', omit the word mail
>
> s/type of mail configuration/type of configuration
>
Well, it's still clear, but are there other translations that will be
forced to delete a word to no particular benefit?
> #. Type: string
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:14001
> msgid "System mail name:"
>
> s/System mail name:/The system's mail name
If this is a synopsis then we don't need the definite article. I
would almost prefer just saying "Mail name:" (after all, what could it
assign one to, if not the system you're installing postfix on?), but
there's no need to go overboard - the word helps to keep it obvious
that we aren't talking about a username or something.
> #. Type: string
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:14001
> msgid ""
> "The \"mail name\" is the domain name used to \"qualify\" _ALL_ mail "
> "addresses without a domain name. This includes mail to and from <root>: "
> "please do not make your machine send out mail from root@example.org unless "
> "root@example.org has told you to."
>
> Does debconf really use another font for words between underscores?
If it did then I expect we'd have problems with LONG_VARIABLE_NAMES.
> Is it
> necessaray to stress the word "ALL" by using capital letters?
It certainly doesn't need both, and I would prefer "ALL" rather than "_all_".
>
> Usage of 'larger than' and 'smaller than' may confuse. consider usage
> of single quotation marks.
Oh, you mean s/<root>/'root'/ ? No, I'm not keen on singlequotes to
mark things as "verbatim", especially when the same message already
uses doublequotes - indeed, given that the next line has unquoted
root@example.org I would suggest s/<root>/root/.
> Do not make fun of debconf users. The joke seems quite trivial to me:
I don't think it is a joke - I think we have bug reporters who
genuinely insist on having it spelled out in the instructions that you
mustn't leave the mailname set to the default.
> Do not make your machine send out mail from root@example.org unless
> root@example.org has told you.
Er, you've removed a "please" and the grammatically required final
"to"; I don't follow.
> #. Type: string
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:16001
> msgid "SMTP relay host (blank for none):"
>
> #. Type: string
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:22001
> msgid ""
> "If this host is a smarthost for a block of machines, you need to specify the "
> "netblocks here, or mail will be rejected rather than relayed."
>
> In case SMTP relay host and smarthost are the same machine, please
> mention it at least once.
I'm in no position to answer questions about the context just now.
By the way, you should probably avoid "in case": for most anglophones,
"unplug your PC immediately just in case of a short circuit” means
"unconditionally, to avert a short circuit, unplug your PC now".
> #. Type: string
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:16001
> msgid ""
> "Please specify a domain, host, host:port, [address] or [address]:port. Use "
> "the form [destination] to turn off MX lookups. Leave this blank for no relay "
> "host."
>
> s
> /Please specify a domain, host, host:port, [address] or [address]:port. Use the form [destination] to turn off MX lookups./
> /Please specify a domain, hostname, hostname:port, [IP address] or [IP address]:port. Use the bracketed form [IP address] to avoid MX lookups.
Improvement.
> #. Type: string
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:19001
> msgid ""
> "Please choose the character that will be used to define a local address "
> "extension."
>
> s
> /Please choose the character that will be used to define a local address extensions
(You've added a superfluous final S there, though plural would also
work if you drop the article.)
> /Please choose a character used as recipient delimiter that will indicate a local address extensions
No; for a start "recipient delimiter" sounds as if it's talking about
the comma in "To: foo, bar". Maybe:
Please choose a delimiter character for defining local address extensions.
or
Please choose a character to define local address extensions when
used as a delimiter.
Or maybe even "when used as a delimiter in local-parts", although that
may be too technical.
>
> #. Type: boolean
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:21001
> msgid ""
> "If synchronous updates are forced, then mail is processed more slowly. If "
> "not forced, then there is a remote chance of losing some mail if the system "
> "crashes at an inopportune time, and you are not using a journaled filesystem "
> "(such as ext3)."
>
> s/there is a remote chance/ there is a slight chance/
I think it's entitled to the slightly stronger emphasis of "remote",
if only because we've gone over to ext4 by default since it was
written. I hope people aren't habitually running postfix under
eatmydata...
> #. Type: string
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:23001
> msgid ""
> "Please specify the limit that Postfix should place on mailbox files to "
> "prevent runaway software errors. A value of zero (0) means no limit. The "
> "upstream default is 51200000."
>
> Alternative:
>
> Please specify the limit that Postfix should place on mailbox files
> (mbox-formatted files) to prevent data losses caused by software
> errors. A value of zero (0) means no limit. The authors of postfix set
> 51200000 as default.
Does it in fact only mean mbox-format mailboxes? If so, less repetitively:
Please specify the size limit that Postfix should place on mailbox
files in mbox format
Do we know that it's about preventing loss of data rather than
avoiding filling the filesystem? If so, it's "data-loss", not "data
losses".
Why change the "upstream default" part? For a start, we should
capitalise Postfix consistently.
> #. Type: string
> #. Description
> #: ../templates:24001
> msgid "Mail is not delivered to external delivery agents as root."
>
> "as root" is highly confusing because one might think that the postfix
> daemon is run by root. Apparently, the phrase refers to mails that
> root shall recieve. Therefore
>
> s
> /Mail is not delivered to external delivery agents as root.
> /Mails for 'root' will not be passed to external delivery agents.
It doesn't need verbatimquotes, and mail is usually a mass-noun, but I
like the idea - it really is much clearer as something like
Mail for root is not passed to external delivery agents.
--
JBR
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