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List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: Request to split calendar systems from kdelibs4.po into separate
From:       John Layt <johnlayt () googlemail ! com>
Date:       2009-11-22 14:59:42
Message-ID: 200911221459.42644.johnlayt () googlemail ! com
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On Saturday 21 November 2009 13:02:03 Māris Nartišs wrote:
> Hello,
> as Latvian team started to work on KDE 4.4 translations, we got nasty
> surprise - kdelibs4.po contains more calendar systems. After care full
> review and work with literature, we still are not capable to meet
> release quantitative barrier - 90% of kdelibs4.po. For some of month
> names we have been unable to find translations to Latvian language for
> more than 5 years and thus it seems to be impossible to find them
> before KDE 4.4. release. Just copying msgid to msgstr is not an option
> as it is not a translation process. Also transliteration to Latvian
> language is not an easy task, as it requires to know word
> pronunciation in "original" language at first. In case of Ethiopian
> calendar system month names it most likely means - pronunciation in
> Ge'ez language...
> 
> For Latvian KDE users translated month names of Ethiopian, Jalali,
> Indian national calendar make little use or sense and thus are not
> essential for KDE usage in Latvia with Latvian locale. Still high %
> requirement of kdelibs4.po makes translation of various month names
> from various calendar systems high importance task (and information).
> According to Wikipedia [1], there are 41 calendar system in use right
> now. Adding more calendar systems to KDE will make situation just
> worse.
> 
> My proposal (sorry - no code :( ) is to split calendar systems into
> separate file (i.e. kalendar.po) and not take into account it's
> translation % to determine language readiness for release. Only
> exception could be the Gregorian calendar as it is considered "the de
> facto international standard, and is used almost everywhere in the
> world for civil purposes, including in the People's Republic of China
> and India" [2].
> If it's impossible to get this done before KDE 4.4 release - temporary
> lower kdelibs4.po requirements to i.e. 85%, thus making new calendar
> system month names translations not mandatory.
> 
> I would like to hear feedback from other (small) teams too. If You
> have not yet started to work on KDE 4.4 translation, probably it's
> time to take look at kdelibs4.po.
> 
> 
> Maris, coordinator of Latvian team.
> 
> 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_calendars
> 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar#Currently_used_calendars
> 

First up my apologies, I normally try to drop an e-mail here when I add 
strange strings, I forgot to do that this time.

I can understand how hard it is to find translations, finding English 
transliterations were hard enough, and somewhat subjective as to which version 
I used, there were several to choose from.

My main comment would be that the primary use of each of these calendars will 
be by both residents and expats as a secondary calendar system, e.g. so mostly 
used as a desktop widget or in kdepim for holidays.  I suspect most users 
would actually be more interested in having the names in the calendar's 
original language, even if operating the desktop in another language, but 
that's just a guess.  In short, I don't see a lack of other translations as 
being a total disaster, but that's for you to decide.

As a suggestion, all our calendar systems old and new are supported in OSX 
Snow Tiger, if you have access to it you may be able to find what translations 
they use.  If you don't have easy access, I do have a copy here and can try 
pull out any needed translations for you, but obviously I may not have the 
time for every language.  I'm assuming there's no copyright able to be claimed 
on a list of month and day names, and OSX has your language available.

Future plans are to add more calendars in 4.5, primarily being various Asian 
lunar calendars (Chinese, Thai, Indian, etc) which kdepim have been requesting 
for a while for use in a new KHoliday library (translation of holiday names 
will be another interesting issue to be solved).  So yes, this problem will 
grow and some kind of consistent policy would be good to have.

Cheers!

John.

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