Thanks for the great feedback. I don't do much translating, so it's good to hear some ideas from people who do.
> I'll send a pull request to Bruno, but I'm new to github > and I'm not quite sure if I do it right. Do I have to select a > specific commit, file or branch for the pull request, or is that > implicit somehow? > Either way, you can select a commit, or just request that I pull from your master. > First, I want to express my gratitude for the considerable effort > already made to make CE translatable. I certainly realise how > difficult it is for native English speakers to predict how an > application will be translated in obscure languages such as my own. > Yeah, remember, CE was extracted from an app that was NOT translated, so the translation support is tacked on after-the-fact. This means there was no real strategy or pattern employed. > * Make sure _all_ text is externalised! It's not as difficult as you > may think: create a language file with all texts replaced with "xxx" > and run the app and see what's left. > * Don't ever break up a sentence in two keys! When I write this, I > can't find an example, but I know there are a few. Never split up a > sentence like "You have 14 unread messages" into "You have" and > "unread messages". Use the parameters in the strings instead, > otherwise it is practically untranslatable. > * Similar to the above, never externalise a part of a sentence, even > when it begins or ends with a parameter. It is very likely that a > correctly translated text does not have the parameter in the same > position in other languages. > * Never stick an "s" at the end of a string, assuming that makes it > plural... Instead, please put singular and plural versions of the > strings in the yaml files, where appropriate. > * Lots of words are the same in English for different contexts, but > not for, for example, Swedish. Therefore you need to make all > occurrences of the same phrase or heading use different keys, since > there simply isn't one correct translation for all occurrences of some > strings. (The word "Views" is one simple example. It has different > meaning, and translations, if it means number of page views, template > files as in RoR or "point of view" in plural.) > * Here is a biggie: don't use the English version of the text as a key > (eg "after_signing_up_youll_receive_an_e_mail_confirmation_message"). > Instead, try to make the keys say something about the context the > string is used in. The word "Views" can be used as an example of this > problem also: if the key is simply "views" there is no was I can tell > which meaning is the correct one. Great advice! If you're interested, I'd love to have you add a 'translation tips' page to the wiki based on this e-mail. Also, please make sure you're fixing those translation tokens when you come across them (and sending pull requests). Thanks! Bruno --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CommunityEngine" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/communityengine?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
