[Localization] The virtue of being fuzzy...

[Xavier Alvarez]

On Tuesday 04 December 2007 14:28, Carlo Falciola wrote:
CF> Xavier,
CF>
CF> First of all thanks a lot for pointing me to the HUG
CF> docs that look exceptionally precious.
CF>
CF> For the "Mesh" I was nursing the idea not to translate
CF> because it seems a term that will soon have a semantic
CF>  value as itself, like "WWW" as example, or "file" (I
CF> still remember an IBM PC manual back in the eighties,
CF> in which  thay translated all file in a really weird
CF> italian "catalogo" that never holds the same meaning
CF> as the original counterpart).
CF> Anyway I think that we should set up some kind of
CF> coordination on the "not to translate" terms (if any).

Personally, the only 'non translateable terms' are those related 
to computer-language-specified tokens. Everything else should be 
translated.

Granted, there is a big gray area involving new or non-frequent 
terms :)

We have to keep in mind that our main target is waaaay off the 
"usual L10n target population". In other words, many translations 
can hedge on the 'background noise' produced by media exposure 
and some level tech savvyness from the intended reader.

In our case, that is not a very realistic assumption to make as 
we'll be dealing with children and communities that are unlikely 
to have the necessary background to deal with geek-speak. So any 
'not to translate' better be a very well thought out decision and 
not a lazy-don't-have-time-to-do-research translation... hence 
the fuzzy tag :)


CF>
CF> > When in doubt, I usually hit Wikipedia
CF> >and then follow the links into Spanish...
CF>
CF> My approach was also to setup a QUEMU emulator for the
CF> OLPC in order to see the real contest of strings.
CF>
CF> ciao e grazie
CF> Carlo
...snip...

Cheers,
Xavier


-- 
XA
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