Re: i18n versus design choices

From: Kathiravelu Pradeeban <kk.pradeeban_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon Jul 04 2011 - 20:40:44 CEST

Hi Chris,
Nice to hear from you again. Apologies for not getting back to the
localization efforts, on time.

By the way, just wanted to give my opinion that I am -1 for this
change. In this particular case, though ':' seems a bit redundant, I
feel it gives a more natural look. Most of these small burdens add
some beauty to the program. I don't think our localizers take this as
a big burden anyway. However that is just my opinion.

On the other hand, I am +1 for working towards finding the ways to
enhance the translator experience and productivity, without
compromising the aesthetic aspects of AbiWord.

Thank you.
Regards,
Pradeeban.

On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 7:50 PM, Chris Leonard <cjlhomeaddress@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear AbiWord devs,
>
> I am looking at opportunities to suggest internationalization (i18n)
> enhancements that would reduce the localization burden and/or result
> in better translations for AbiWord (e.g. add developer's comments to
> some strings).
>
> One of the key questions in any such review is the extent to which
> compromises between ease of localization (e.g. reducing string count)
> and style-based design decisions will be considered.
>
> Here is one specific example.  In the Document Properties box, (see
> screenshot attached)  the strings are displayed with an appended colon
> (a style choice).  Many of these strings are also localized without
> the colon.
>
> 1A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:2494    Title
> 1B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:2499    Title:
> 2A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:2382    Subject
> 2B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:2384    Subject:
> 3A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:1905    Publisher
> 3B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:1907    Publisher:
> 4A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:2031    Rights
> 4B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:2033    Rights:
> 5A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:843     Coverage
> 5B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:845     Coverage:
> 6A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:801     Contributor
> 6B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:803     Contributor(s):
> 7A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:987     Description
> 7B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:990     Description:
> 8A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:1496    Keywords
> 8B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:1498    Keywords:
> 9A      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:1509    Language
> 9B      po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:1513    Language(s):
> 10A     po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:2031    Rights
> 10B     po/tmp/ap_String_Id.h.h:2033    Rights:
>
>
> The specific question is whether the AbiWord development team is
> willing to sacrifice a minor design element (the colon) that serves
> little real purpose (the colon does not truly serve as a meaningful
> text delimiter given the grey background and the white input box).
> The benefit to the localizer is fewer string variations to translate.
>
> This may see like a trivial example, but there are any number of other
> such possible i18n refinements that could be considered and I am
> willing to do the work to research and propose them, but only if I
> know that they will be given a fair hearing and not just dismissed as
> unacceptable compromises of cherished design elements.  I do not
> presume that every suggestion would be accepted, only that they would
> be given due consideration in the context of improving the localizer's
> contribution to AbiWord.
>
> Please let me know if it is worth my time to seek and propose such changes.
>
> cjl
>

-- 
Kathiravelu Pradeeban.
Software Engineer.
WSO2 Inc.
Blog: [Llovizna] http://kkpradeeban.blogspot.com/
Received on Mon Jul 4 20:41:11 2011

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Mon Jul 04 2011 - 20:41:11 CEST