[Sugar-devel] [PATCH 2/5] sl#2815: Localization fixes.

[Ajay Garg]

Thanks Gonzalo. Thanks Chris.

I think I understood the mechanism:

In the i18n file, the "key" string will be "%(hour)d %(min).2d remaining".
The translation needs to be done, with the understanding that the tokens
"%(hour)d", "%(min).2d" and "remaining" might be inter-located, however the
information needs to be conveyed that argument-formatter tokens should not
be translated, only the string tokens. That information should be conveyed
by the "TRANS" label, which gets copied "as-it-is" in the i18n file.

Thanks.

Just one more question, can the "TRANS" label string span multiple lines?
That is, is something like ::

               # TRANS: first line text
               # second line text
               # third line text
correct?

or it needs to be ::

               # TRANS: first line text second line text third line text


Looking forward to a reply.


Regards,
Ajay

On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 7:23 PM, Chris Leonard <cjlhomeaddress at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 8:31 AM, Gonzalo Odiard <gonzalo at laptop.org>
> wrote:
> > The problem is the substitution of a single string to translate here:
> >
> >                 secondary_text = _('%(hour)d:%(min).2d remaining') % \
> >                         {'hour': remaining_hourpart, 'min':
> > remaining_minpart}
> >
> > by a concatenation here:
> >
> >                 time_value = '%(hour)d:%(min).2d ' % \
> >                         {'hour': remaining_hourpart, 'min':
> > remaining_minpart}
> >                 secondary_text = time_value + _('remaining')
> >
> > The string to translate should be one, the the translator can reorder as
> > needed.
>
> I agree with Gonzalo, any concatenation is very bad i18n practice.  A
> complete phrase can be properly translated to conform to the syntax of
> any language.  I do not believe there is a need to change the string
> itself, I would leave it as is.
>
> >
> > But the bug say "This string could use a developers comment clarifying
> what
> > gets translated.
> > It is often done incorrectly in our Pootle instance."
> >
> > I think he refer to add a line as:
> >
> > # TRANS: Remaining battery time.
>
> I would probably suggest
>
> # TRANS: do not translate %(hour)d:%(min).2d  it is a variable, only
> translate the word "remaining"
>
> What I commonly see is the local words for hour and minute inserted in
> the variable, causing a printf error, whcih will break a software
> build.
>
> >
> > This comment will be used by gettext and displayed in the pootle server
> to
> > help the translators
> >
> > You can see one example here:
> >
> http://git.sugarlabs.org/sugar/mainline/blobs/master/extensions/cpsection/updater/view.py#line381
> >
> > I am copying to Chris to confirm if this was the intention of the bug
> > filled.
> >
> > Gonzalo
>
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