I have begun the danish translation of Habari and came to think of a
few things i would like to ask opinions on.
In danish we are used to adopt english words, and use a lot of
different english words and terms in daily speech (and many are after
years use adopted to the dictionaries).
In the danish translation I think I will try to keep many of the used
terms in english to keep users from getting confused - this is e.g.
"theme", "dashboard". I think it will prevent a lot of confusion when
people start searching google for "templates" or "skabeloner" instead
of "themes", and in international forums, where it would be easier to
help each others use and navigate around the admin.
Any others having thoughts on it? Or should i just do as i think fits?
On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 2:30 AM, Silkjaer <silkj...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have begun the danish translation of Habari and came to think of a > few things i would like to ask opinions on.
> In danish we are used to adopt english words, and use a lot of > different english words and terms in daily speech (and many are after > years use adopted to the dictionaries).
> In the danish translation I think I will try to keep many of the used > terms in english to keep users from getting confused - this is e.g. > "theme", "dashboard". I think it will prevent a lot of confusion when > people start searching google for "templates" or "skabeloner" instead > of "themes", and in international forums, where it would be easier to > help each others use and navigate around the admin.
This seems like something that should definitely be given more consideration.
I respect the speed that the translations have started with, but I wonder if they would benefit from some intercommunication. For example, the job of translating should not be limited to providing the translation strings alone, but also ensuring that strings in source are translatable, and that the translations are correctly declared. If these things aren't taken care of first, then the work of translating those strings may be repeated, which is a waste of the translators' time.
If the translators could coordinate their efforts to answer questions like the one you pose and to work together to change or submit tickets for language that is not translated, then we could have higher quality translations, albeit at the possible expense of some of the amazing speed we've had with the translations in progress.
> On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 2:30 AM, Silkjaer <silkj...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I have begun the danish translation of Habari and came to think of a
> > few things i would like to ask opinions on.
> > In danish we are used to adopt english words, and use a lot of
> > different english words and terms in daily speech (and many are after
> > years use adopted to the dictionaries).
> > In the danish translation I think I will try to keep many of the used
> > terms in english to keep users from getting confused - this is e.g.
> > "theme", "dashboard". I think it will prevent a lot of confusion when
> > people start searching google for "templates" or "skabeloner" instead
> > of "themes", and in international forums, where it would be easier to
> > help each others use and navigate around the admin.
> This seems like something that should definitely be given more consideration.
> I respect the speed that the translations have started with, but I
> wonder if they would benefit from some intercommunication. For
> example, the job of translating should not be limited to providing the
> translation strings alone, but also ensuring that strings in source
> are translatable, and that the translations are correctly declared.
> If these things aren't taken care of first, then the work of
> translating those strings may be repeated, which is a waste of the
> translators' time.
> If the translators could coordinate their efforts to answer questions
> like the one you pose and to work together to change or submit tickets
> for language that is not translated, then we could have higher quality
> translations, albeit at the possible expense of some of the amazing
> speed we've had with the translations in progress.
From the point of view of an end user it does make sense for me, to
skip translation of some areas. As Silkjaer mentioned for "themes": On
one hand it's kind of strange to have english words in a translated
admin interface, on the other hand it's really confusing if you don't
know what to search for, when you need help or a new theme or
whatever ...
This counts especially for exception and error messages. As
programming languages aren't written in german, french, etc ... people
who understand exception or error messages will understand them in
either way. People who don't 'understand' them because they don't have
the technical/programming background won't 'understand' them in
english nor in any other language, so it actually won't make a
diffrence, if error messages ar translatet or not. Having a support
process in mind, english error messages would grant, that everybody
knows what to search for, if there is a problem.
An Option could be error messages, that consist of the "error" and a
short explanation which could be translated. In a way similar to http
status codes. (It's not really a good example, but i don't have
another idea atm.) As http status codes consit of numbers, on a first
view there is no need for translation. For the end user it doesn't
make any diffrence if he has a 204 or a 404, it just doesn't work. But
the second part of the error message like "No Content" could be
translated.
--
I hope it's okay that I just pop in and give away my two cents ...
(I'm following the mailing list for some time and try to help
translating on launchpad and therefore thought ... you get the idea.)
On May 9, 7:33 pm, Andrew da Silva <andrewdasi...@mac.com> wrote:
> A lot of strings in the source needs to be rephrased.
> I've read all the classes and added a lot of _t() that were missing.
> Off the top of my head, XMLRPC error strings are either badly
> formatted or quite technical to translate properly.
> Also, do we want to skip translation on specific classes/areas? Like
> exception/error messages? Would translating those affect the support
> process?
> On May 9, 8:53 am, "Owen Winkler" <epit...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 2:30 AM, Silkjaer <silkj...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I have begun the danish translation of Habari and came to think of a
> > > few things i would like to ask opinions on.
> > > In danish we are used to adopt english words, and use a lot of
> > > different english words and terms in daily speech (and many are after
> > > years use adopted to the dictionaries).
> > > In the danish translation I think I will try to keep many of the used
> > > terms in english to keep users from getting confused - this is e.g.
> > > "theme", "dashboard". I think it will prevent a lot of confusion when
> > > people start searching google for "templates" or "skabeloner" instead
> > > of "themes", and in international forums, where it would be easier to
> > > help each others use and navigate around the admin.
> > This seems like something that should definitely be given more consideration.
> > I respect the speed that the translations have started with, but I
> > wonder if they would benefit from some intercommunication. For
> > example, the job of translating should not be limited to providing the
> > translation strings alone, but also ensuring that strings in source
> > are translatable, and that the translations are correctly declared.
> > If these things aren't taken care of first, then the work of
> > translating those strings may be repeated, which is a waste of the
> > translators' time.
> > If the translators could coordinate their efforts to answer questions
> > like the one you pose and to work together to change or submit tickets
> > for language that is not translated, then we could have higher quality
> > translations, albeit at the possible expense of some of the amazing
> > speed we've had with the translations in progress.
> I hope it's okay that I just pop in and give away my two cents ... > (I'm following the mailing list for some time and try to help > translating on launchpad and therefore thought ... you get the idea.)
The rest of your messages requires more thought for a response, but I did want to point out that you are absolutely welcome to pop in and give away money whenever you like. :)
Seriously, though... Anyone reading is welcome to contribute an opinion as you have. Hopefully the interaction may encourage you to participate in other ways, too.
