[haiku-development] Re: [haiku-i18n] Re: Localization of files and folders
- From: Patrik Gissberg <patrik@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:18:50 +0100
Hi Michael!
Michael Bridgers skrev:
I would like to comment that the idea of having translations of file
and folder names is not a valid approach to handling localization.
There are several problems with that approach. You will not find any
of the major operating systems that do this. Localizations are for the
UI elements of applications (including the OS), but not for data.
Files and Folders are the 'data' for the OS, in one sense.
1) If you show a translated name for a file or folder, the user will
have no idea what the "real" name is for the object.
2) When writing a program that accesses files or folders, I don't want
to have to have the program "know" about the 'aliases' for the object.
3) This will impact the run time of applications as they search
through the aliases when looking for the proper object.
4) Very often the translation of a word is context sensitive. A single
file or folder does not have a context, so the translation is ambiguous.
5) A single word in one language can often require a translation into
a phrase of multiple words in another language.
6) This will impact name collisions when doing the translations. For
example, let's say a French speaker creates a directory named
"contenu". Then an English speaker creates a directory named
"contents" in the same parent directory. Since the translations of
those words are each other, it would be impossible to have a correct
translation for those objects.
7) If a Russian speaker creates a folder using Cyrillic characters,
the name of the folder is the Russian name, NOT a Chinese translation
of the Russian.
Michael Bridgers
My idea is to present a localized alternative (which can be disabled) to
the user. The reason behind the idea is that user that do not understand
English should be able to understand file and folder names. This will
only apply to Tracker and Deskbar. The real name and path will be shown
in the file info.
It's a fair trade-off; Let users that do not understand English see
localized names. If you do not want it, just disable it in the settings.
Terminal etc will show the real names, in English.
Try changing Haiku to a language you don't understand and use it for a
couple of hours. That is how people with no knowledge in English will
experience Haiku.
"Haiku is fast, simple to use, easy to learn and yet very powerful." –
If you understand English.
Regards
Patrik
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