Fwd: Launchpad feedback/feature requests

[Carlos Perelló Marín]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1



Noirin Plunkett escribió:
> 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!)

Rosetta only uses that information to show the needed plural form fields
so you can do a full translation. Then, on export time, we add a header
to the exported file so the application knows how to select the plural
form to render depending on the amount of items that the string being
translated has.

You need that information to 'teach' the application how to translate:
'0 dogs', '1 dog', '2 dogs', etc...

Of course, I agree that it's not clear enough for people that are new
with gettext plural forms so it's a matter of write documentation in a
good readable and understandable way. In the mean time, is better to
have that for people that understands it than show nothing.

I filed this as bug: https://launchpad.net/rosetta/+bug/90322

Cheers.

> 
> 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
> 

- --
Carlos Perelló Marín
Ubuntu => http://www.ubuntu.com
mailto:carlos.perello at canonical.com
http://carlos.pemas.net
Alicante - Spain
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFF7nwVEuPMamD5V9cRAuxSAJ9/39v+M1TKz36DZyOVjbS86Gb5owCcC6vy
wA7bb6WWGoB5Kuqi6cYb1DA=
=n0Dl
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----