Quoting Eddy Petrisor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > Hello, > > As I have said in at a previous time, I have started working on adding > comments in the dpkg code, in order to add automatic comments to the > translatable strings.
WONDERFUL. If you can do it on your own TLA branch, that'd be great. See Scott's wonderful explanations about arch/tla/baz at http://www.dpkg.org > 2) in some languages forms like "3 installed packages", "1 installed package" > and "6 installed packages" need three different forms for the word ngettext is what you need as others explained. > 3) in some cases the messages are so cryptical that rephrasing them would be a > much better solution than adding automatic comments: > Rephrase... > Solutions: > a) change the messages > consequnce: > - translations will be fuzzied; many translators will cuss at me > + messages will be easier to translate > + no more changes will be necessary later > + messages will be easy to understand for regular Joes (although they will > probably won't be able to do anything with the resulted info Do this. We are at a moiment in the devel cycle where breaking translaiton is not *that* a problem. After all, working with broken strings is our daily life..:-) More seriously, even if I sometimes have to slow down upstream by requesting not changing strings too often, when a string is broken, it has to be fixed, whether or not it breaks the translations. > 4) the best packaging practices states that the program should not "speak > as a person"; impersonal messages are preffered. > > this is what I have found, at a glance: > "...like what you want, and you can `reject' my suggestions by using the > capital..." - there shouldn't be "my sugestions" > => > "and you can `reject' the suggestions by using the capital" Yes, also. Throw out these "amateur-style" messages. There is NO REASON to use first person in a computer program. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
