[haiku] Re: Proposals for the LocaleKit
- From: "Travis D. Reed" <tdreed@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 21:40:16 -0600
BTW, I'm not suggesting that the development language should be other than
English; it's just that the end-user should be completely unaware of this.
--
Travis D. Reed
On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 9:21 PM, Travis D. Reed <tdreed@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Good points...As a "casual programmer," I'm more than willing to get
> involved in this way. I think I'm looking for suggestions from the
> "not-so-casual programmers" on how best to repair the deficient <<
> notations.
>
> kirilla has suggested a structure like so:
>
> BString message = "There are %d of %d files left to copy";
>
> message.ReplaceFirst("%d", left).ReplaceFirst("%d", total);
>
> Your thoughts?
>
> --
> Travis D. Reed
>
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 9:09 PM, Kevin Ar18 <kevinar18@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>
>> We need to establish some guidelines for coding to make strings
>> translator-friendly. I've discussed this with a few people, but I'd like to
>> enter it into the public record here. Translators need whole strings, not
>> fragments of messages built up using <<. Coders simply have to provide
>> strings like "There are %d of %d files left to copy" rather than "There
>> are", "of", and "files left to copy". If you browse the code of the Tracker
>> Kit, you'll find several examples of how *not* to be translator-friendly.
>> Kirilla (whose true identity evades me at the moment) has discussed the
>> possibility of adding printf-like functionality to BString. However you all
>> decide to do it, though, someone eventually is going to have to do fairly
>> massive rewrites of preexisting code to make it translator friendly. There
>> are slews of people ready to translate, but the material we have is not
>> truely adequate. Many of the existing translations already have this flaw
>> and will need to be significantly re-translated.
>>
>>
>> Look at it from the bright side:
>>
>> * This work does not require extensive coding skills to do... meaning
>> * It would be a great way to get new coders involved, maybe even ones that
>> are afraid to do anything too difficult.
>> * As they fix things, it could let some people get familiar with the
>> codebase so they might contribute to harder stuff later.
>>
>> * This offers a chance for someone new to come on board [how about you? :)
>> ] and help organize translations and help coders to know how to write their
>> code to be more translator-friendly
>> * This offers a chance to organize the whole translation effort better
>> (and again maybe with some new people on board who are not kernel hackers,
>> etc...)
>>
>> * This offers many non-coders and casual programmers something to do --
>> something that could actually involve a lot of effort.
>>
>>
>> > As Haiku moves forward to R1, localization should become a higher
>> priority. What good is an English-only OS? I have some suggestions that I'd
>> like to have feedback on.
>> Don't be too worried about the project being "English only" right now.
>> That is not an odd thing; nor does it imply that language translation is
>> undesirable. It is quite common for open source projects to work together
>> solely in English (sometimes when a team is not even in an English speaking
>> country). For all anybody knows, Haiku may always remain English centric in
>> the core coding/development. Still, don't take that as any desire to avoid
>> non-English speakers. Instead, consider it a great opportunity to expand:
>> have people who are dedicated to working on translation issues, have people
>> who try to bridge language gaps on the website and forums, have people
>> reaching out to non-English speakers, and maybe even develop ways to
>> interact with non-English programmers who want to contribute to Haiku.
>> Anyways, I hope that came across as more encouraging of what opportunities
>> there are in this area as opposed to sounding negative. Overall, this would
>> be one area where a lot of non-coders or casual programmers could get
>> involved -- something that would not require lots of baby-sittying by the
>> current programming team -- and something that could attract more people.
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free. Sign up
>> now. <http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469229/direct/01/>
>>
>
>
Other related posts:
