[haiku-development] Re: [haiku-i18n] Re: Localization of files and folders
- From: "Axel Dörfler" <axeld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:20:29 +0100
Michael Bridgers <mab@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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.
Not sure what major OSes you are using, but both Windows, and Mac OS X
are doing this.
I'm not a huge fan of it either, but for things like the preferences
applications, it actually makes 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.
You're mixing up concepts: if the actual name of the file/folder is not
translated, there is no need to know any aliases.
It will be the user's choice to see the translated or the actual file
names; the files itself won't be renamed. So only 1) would be a
problem, but only if you want to, unlike Windows or Mac OS X where
that's a given.
Earlier Windows versions even seem to have different folder names, and
it's still confusing applications, and Windows. For example, I have two
"Programme" folders that Explorer will show me, but only one can be
accessed. That surely was a bad idea, but they obviously moved away
from that, too.
Bye,
Axel.
Other related posts:
