Fwd: Launchpad feedback/feature requests

[Noirin Plunkett]

Sorry - sent this just to Danilo previously.

The big issue isn't so much that, as a translator, I don't understand
the plural form(s) of my target language. It's just that I don't
understand how I should know which form to use where. If I see "n==1",
should I use singular? Or if I see "1"? Or if I see "n==1?" Or if I
see "n==1?0"? Which of these will appear in the translation interface,
what do I replace with the appropriate text?
It's really pretty confusing!

(This may be documentation or a help file that belongs somewhere
linked to, but seperate from, Rosetta. Or it may be that Rosetta
doesn't actually *use* that information anywhere, in which case maybe
it should just be removed/hidden to make it less confusing!)

Noirin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Noirin Plunkett <plunkett at gmail.com>
Date: Mar 6, 2007 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: Launchpad feedback/feature requests
To: Danilo Šegan <danilo at canonical.com>


On 3/6/07, Danilo Šegan <danilo at canonical.com> wrote:
> Hi Noirin,
>
> Thanks for the feedback.  Here are some thoughts and explanations.

Thanks Danilo!

> > - In the "translation" part, what on earth does Plural expression:
> > n==1 ? 0 : n==2 ? 1 : 2
> > mean? Irish has three forms - singular, dual and plural... I presume
> > it's related to that, but really, it could do with being clearer. If
> > it's something I'm meant to be able to use in translating, it's
> > definitely not working!
>
> It's a GNU gettext formula for calculating the plural form, and it
> uses C language syntax for that.  From there, I can tell that the 3
> forms in Irish are:
>
>   1. When number is 1, use the first form
>   2. When number is 2, use the second form
>   3. Otherwise, use the first form

Ok, for a start that seems wrong to me, linguistically - but if that's
what gettext is specifying, fair enough. The problem is, I don't know
how to use this information in my translations. You mention "When
number is 1" - I don't know what that means, or where I should expect
to see it.

> OTOH, Serbian (and Russian, Croatian) formula is much more complex,

<complex explanation!>


> I'd like to make this clearer and more useful for everybody, but I am
> not sure how to show that and how to determine a textual explanation
> from such free form formulae.

I think translators will be familiar with the various forms required
for their languages, and when to use each form. There just needs to be
a slightly more translator-friendly explanation =)

> Maybe go through a list of numbers and see which entries match what
> cases, then display them as examples there?

The issue is more making it clear how the forms are referenced in
Rosetta, if that makes sense. How do I know where to put a singular,
or where a plural?

> Launchpad works with translations coming from packages (for distros) and
> releases (for products), and then allows you to improve those
> translations.  If nothing has changed ("translation unchanged since
> last sync"), it means that it was translated outside Launchpad,
> "changed in Rosetta" means that it was updated in Launchpad (and it
> had some translation done outside before), and "newly translated"
> means that there was no previous translation, and it was translated
> using Launchpad.

Ahhh =) Thank you for that explanation!
Noirin