[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    State of en_GB (was Re: Clean up of Kooka translations)
From:       Jonathan Marten <jjm2 () keelhaul ! demon ! co ! uk>
Date:       2013-11-12 9:21:04
Message-ID: ov1u2mou0v.fsf () keelhaul ! local
[Download RAW message or body]

Albert Astals Cid <aacid@kde.org> writes:
> Well, if you're an en_GB user, you should make sure en_GB gets released with 
> 4.12, because by the looks of http://l10n.kde.org/stats/gui/stable-kde4/essential/
> and the fact that noone is translating it, looks like it won't  get released.

Hmmm, that language doesn't look good.  I don't know how active the
en_GB I18N team is, but there doesn't seem to have been any actual
translation work (as opposed to just package moves, etc) there since
2011.

Maybe part of the reason for this is unique to that language: most
strings will not actually need translating, and a missing translation
will still be readable to a British English user.  I'm guessing that
many users will just accept it, and will not go to the trouble of
raising a bug report just because there is one instance of "color" in
an application.  So, in a way, en_GB is a victim of its own
similarity.

That does make the statistics seem worse than they actually are,
though, and overestimate the amount of work need to fix them compared
with another language.  Looking at
http://l10n.kde.org/stats/gui/stable-kde4/package/kde-runtime/en_GB/
for example, there is no actual translation work and only 20 messages
to be copied verbatim in order to completely eliminate the four red
bars.  Resolving about 6 more files with fuzzy messages would get this
component to over 90%.

As part of the cleanup for Kooka I've allowed entries such as:

    #: imgprintdialog.cpp:67
    msgid "Image Printing"
    msgstr ""

to remain - which doesn't affect the application, still provides a
correct translation in en_GB, and actually reduces work if the source
string changes in future.  But I've now realised that this counts as
an untranslated string in the statistics.

I can't promise anything, and unfortunately I'm not in a position to
become an "official" en_GB translator, but I will certainly keep an
eye on that language and try to contribute translations or fix
problems where necessary.  I'll first take a look at the core packages
and see how much work is actually involved in improving their
percentages - watch this space.

Best regards,
  Jonathan


-- 
Jonathan Marten                         http://www.keelhaul.demon.co.uk
Twickenham, UK                          jjm2@keelhaul.demon.co.uk
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]