On 6/4/06, Eddy Petrişor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 6/4/06, Eddy Petrişor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello all, > > Yes, indeed, this is a mail regarding the recurrent problem of badly > written error messages in dpkg. > > Similar strings which are not merged, although they should be: > > --remove needs a single argument > --remove needs one arguments > Note also the error in the second message (this will need unfuzzification) > > "You need --help." > "You need --help"
"%s: can't backup old %s, giving up: %s" "cannot backup old %s, giving up: %s" "open %s: %s" "failed to open %s: %s" "slave link name %s duplicated" "slave link %s duplicated" "slave name %s duplicated" are these supposed to be the same thing? no? not even a couple of them? "unable to install %s as %s" "unable to install %s as %s: %s" "unable to install `%.250s' as `%.250s'" - from src/configure.c These could be paired, I think (looking at the code) (will aslo provide more info ;-) --- \n Copyright (C) 1995 Ian Jackson.\n Copyright (C) 2000,2001 Wichert Akkerman. --- \n Copyright (C) 1995 Ian Jackson.\n Copyright (C) 2000-2002 Wichert Akkerman. --- I know these are different, but the format could be similar so it is easier to have fuzzy translations automatically fed in.
> All messages like: > --remove needs a single argument > --add needs a single argument > --remove needs a single argument > --truename needs a single argument
--altdir needs a <directory> argument --admindir needs a <directory> argument "failed to open %s: %s" and "open %s: %s" all similar groups (there is one for remove) Oh, let's not forget, the longer and more verbose version is the prefered version.
> > could be compressed as "--%s needs a single argument", like it was > done in the C code parts of dpkg. > > > Way too spartan messages to be understood (I looked at the code and > couldn't understand how they should have been translated as, until I > realised the format was "operation that was attempted: error string") > > rename: remove duplicate old link `%s': %s > error checking `%s': %s > close diversions-new: %s > remove old diversions-old: %s > ... and many others. > > First person talk, it should be impersonal talk: > "%s: failed to install %s; I'll leave it as %s: %s" > > Comments missing badly: > "read %s: %s" - is this present or past form > "close %s after read: %s" - this needs badly an explanation.
"manflag"
> > I understand these strings just became translatable due to fixing of > #165843, but still there is room for improvement.
"but --force specified so lets ignore it." is not in impersonal form, it sould be, imho, "but --force specified so will be ignored." Also, I fear that in some languages the split phrase is untranslatable or might impose some weird difficulties, as it is now (this is not true for Romanian, so I can't tell for sure). Also, breaking the --help messages into a few strings (like it was done for dpkg C code) would be beneficial for translators (the first three lines are the same, while changes willl be easier to follow): These are common already --- Usage: %s [<option> ...] <command>\n \n --- --help show this help message.\n --version show the version.\n \n --- Probably the --quiet option is encountered again in some other places. Also I remember the help messages from the other dpkg strings had the first letter of the first word in each explanation capitalised and always a full stop at the end of each explanation. I guess that's about it, for now. -- Regards, EddyP ============================================= "Imagination is more important than knowledge" A.Einstein
