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List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: clarification of a string
From:       Federico Zenith <federico.zenith () member ! fsf ! org>
Date:       2010-12-22 12:32:40
Message-ID: 4D11EFE8.2020806 () member ! fsf ! org
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Den 22.12.2010 13:00, skrev Chusslove Illich:
>> [: Dimitrios Glentadakis :]
>> The "Contact Owner" is translated in greek as: "The owner of the contact" .
>> I think the real meaning is "Contact the owner". It is right my thought ?
> You are right.
>
> But this example should be viewed more systematically. [...]
>
> All the messages above and below the problematic one are actions ("do
> something with something"), and all of them come from the same source file
> in which they are tightly packed two lines apart.
>
> In summary, in my opinion, the message "Contact Owner" does not require
> explicit context (msgctxt). Rather, it requires the translator to closely
> follow the *positional context*, which means always keeping in sight
> messages above and below the current one, and their source references in
> relation to one another.
I disagree. Translating in a straight line is not necessarily the best
way to do this, and tools like Lokalize provide alternatives for a reason.

Case 1: the translating group has decided that e.g. "override" will be
translated in a certain way. In Lokalize, I would filter for "override"
and translate all messages containing the word (and correct previous
translations). This filters the message list and will lump together
messages from different parts of the code. I know I do it often and it
makes my work easier, and I don't think I am the only one.

Case 2: Positional context is no guarantee. Just because there are a lot
of actions in form verb+object does not mean there could not be a
qualifier+substantive in the middle. Sure, it is less likely, but that's it.

We cannot expect translators to dig in the source code. We already have
too few, we cannot afford raising the bar to include only people who can
read code and navigate SVN/Git. If developers want good translations,
they must invest some extra 10-20 keystrokes (5 seconds?) to add a
msgctxt every time the message is prone to misunderstanding. If in
doubt, don't leave it out.

Most importantly: if there is, anywhere in the application, a "Contact
Owner" meaning "Contacting the owner", and another "Contact Owner"
meaning "owner of the contact", the absence of a msgctxt will lump them
together in the PO file. The two messages may come from different files
and be written by different authors, unaware of each other.

Cheers
-Federico
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