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List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: plasmapkg
From:       Chusslove Illich <caslav.ilic () gmx ! net>
Date:       2008-05-31 16:48:15
Message-ID: 200805311848.16307.caslav.ilic () gmx ! net
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>> [: Julien Richard-Foy :]
>> I'm the french translator of plasmapkg and I met a little problem with
>> the types of plasma packages (theme, wallpaper, etc.), which are not
>> translatable in the .po and are still in english in the current french
>> translation. I think it would be better if it could be translated [...]
>
> [: Aaron J. Seigo :]
> of the 5 options currently supported, it's probably only theme and
> wallpaper that would make any sense to translate. [...]

I think we got off in a wrong direction from this point onwards. What others
reacted to is the fact that if k items, 0 < k < n, are eligible for
translation, than all n should be provided for translation.

But, in present case, if I understand it correctly, k = 0, ie. *none* of
those strings are to be translated. They are keywords to be understood by
the program, and programs understand only Bastard English :) I would rejoice
if, in great generality, programs would be able to understand any language,
so that I could write either of:

  $ plasmapkg --install /home/path/foo --type runner
  $ plazmapkt --postavi /home/path/foo --tip izvođač

with the same effect, but we are not remotely there (or even heading to)
yet.

But this means that programmers too shouldn't (in my opinion) expose
keywords to translators, precisely to avoid these misunderstandings. For
example, the option help string as it is now:

  ki18n("The type of package, e.g. theme, wallpaper, plasmoid, DataEngine, Runner, etc.")

I would instead write as:

  ki18n("The type of package, one of: %1").subs(availableTypes.join(" "))

(and very intentionaly joining with space instead of comma, to make it look
less like a human-language list of words).

-- 
Chusslove Illich (Часлав Илић)
Serbian KDE translation team

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