Hi,
I'm maintaining the french translation for the Plucker viewer (and soon for
the Plucker Desktop), and I want to bring up a terminology problem for
general discussion.
I can only talk about the User Interface terms, not about the
developper/internal terms, that are obviously more technical.
The aim of this discussion is to define a fix set of terms that can be used
in all translations of the viewer, in the Plucker desktop, etc. to avoid
differences between languages, between software (viewer / desktop) and
inside a single software.
After a few words with Michael Nordstr�m, here is the current point (this
is my own (inaccurate ?) interpretation), from the general to the
particular :
* "library" : the list of all PLKR databases (PDBs) on the device
* "database" or "document" : a single PLKR database
* "record" : a single HTML source page, that can be split in the viewer
* "page" : the viewable part of the record : a single part, when the viewer
splits a long page
The english translation (the reference for all translations) refers to the
"database" as either a "database" or a "document". In the help text for the
"details" dialog, it refers to the "record" as a "document", etc.
The Plucker Desktop refers to "databases" as "channels" (a channel is
actually a set of parameters that allow the generation of a database; so
it's not quite the same thing). It refers to the "library" (or set of
channels) as the "channel manager"...
It look like there is a need for user interface consistency (I'm not
talking about the code that I don't know anything about, except RCP
resource files).
What I propose is the following :
* "library" : the list of PLKR PDBs
* "e-book", "book" or "channel" : one PDB database ("book" would be
consistent with the term "library", but "channel" is a more fashion term,
and suits the Plucker Desktop)
* "document" : one page (or one set of pages if it's split into many pages)
(equivalent to the "record" above)
* "page" : the viewable part of the document : a single part, when the
viewer splits a long page
The Plucker Desktop can keep its :
* "channel manager" : the list of defined channel, which is not the same as
the "library" on the device
* "channel" : the set of parameters that create an "e-book"
The main problems are :
* stick the "document" word to the HTML page (a database is a set of
documents) : a web site is made of of various pages, each separate from
each other. In this case, we can't refer to the whole plucked site as a
single document. If the site is really a consistent set of related
information (like http://www.clinicalexam.com/pda/index.htm), it can be
refered to as a "book" or "e-book", letting the term "document" free of
misinterpretation.
* choose between "book" and "channel" : from the user's point of view, the
first one is static (I download a book, feed it into the Palm, and never
update it) as the second one is dynamic (as Plucker desktop can update it
regularly, this term is good too -- too microsoft-ish for my taste,
though...). I like "book" because it suits well with the existing
"library".
If we can define a good terminology (user-interface oriented), I can
propagate the changes into the english translation (long with explanation
of the terminology), for the other language to have a clean and consistent
reference.
NH
