[Localization] code comments?

Sat Apr 5 06:05:20 EDT 2008

Yes, by setting LANGUAGE env variable with a fall back language, some thing
like "LANGUAGE=ur_PK:fa_IR:ar", you can specify multiple fall back languages.

On Sat, Apr 05, 2008 at 09:31:30AM +0200, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> ... which reminds me: Is it possible in gettext to fall back on a  
> language other than English when a translation for some phrase cannot  
> be found? That would be a useful feature I think, as long as there are  
> programs that are not fully translated (which will happen very often).
> 
> - Bert -
> 
> On 05.04.2008, at 07:55, info at olpc-peru.info wrote:
> > English > Spanish > Aymara ?????
> >
> > I don't know what you are doing with Aymara.  But Quechua is more
> > "important" (numerically!!!)
> > than Aymara language: 80% of the Peruvian Indian Population speaks  
> > some
> > sort of Quechua.
> > Aymara is only spoken in some part of "Puno" region (and in many  
> > places
> > in Bolivia... I don't know
> > if there is a OLPC project in Bolivia... but for Peru the first "extra
> > language" is Quechua (in its
> > four variations)... then Aymara.
> >
> > But... if you like Aymara!!! Let's do the Aymara thing! (smile).
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Javier Rodriguez
> > Lima, Peru
> >
> >
> > Yama Ploskonka wrote:
> >> I second this. By mistake I had sent a similar message to someone  
> >> in the
> >> list, but not to the list, a few week back.  the thread was
> >> Re: [Localization] Problem: 2 translations for 1 string
> >>
> >> I am no expert in OLPC msgid or .po files and am still trying to  
> >> figure
> >> poodle out in the cascading language problem (English -> Spanish ->
> >> Aymara) where any such problems could very easily become silly,
> >> especially if it happens in the hinge language.
> >>
> >> One concept I have been toying with is that msgid be referred to  
> >> with an
> >> univocal referent, like a database pointer, not with an English  
> >> phrase.
> >> The pointers would point to the English phrase in a similar structure
> >> that they would point to any language phrase in any language.
> >> ex.gr., BS07.en would be 'copy' and BS07.de would be 'Kopieren' and
> >> BS07.es 'copiar'.  There would be another instance of 'copy' that  
> >> would
> >> be BS68.en, with a BS68.de translation as 'kopiere dich', and as many
> >> instances as actual phrases happen in each context in the software,  
> >> even
> >> if apparently they are the same in English.  Reference pointer  
> >> would be
> >> a number, or a construct that indicates package, class name, etc,  
> >> in the
> >> software, and as add-on extension during execution (?) the language
> >> code.  Thus very little data could hold enormous amount of different
> >> possible languages.
> >>
> >> That would not solve all problems, since English IS the default
> >> development language, yet English is somewhat poor in declensions and
> >> all those funny endings that bring so much joy to many other  
> >> languages
> >> (Aymara is ripe with that) thus at the development stage it might  
> >> not be
> >> noticed that a given term has to be contextualized.  Also, still the
> >> translator needs to know what sort of context the term is used in,  
> >> which
> >> is not necessarily evident.
> >>
> >> I do not know if this is even feasible at this stage of the game.   
> >> While
> >> it would make all sort of localization issues much easier, it would
> >> require a deep-down digging into the code.
> >>
> >> In the long term it would be more than worth it, since maintenance  
> >> and
> >> further translations would bypass this kind of issues.
> >>
> >> Yama
> >>
> >> Kent Loobey wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Friday 04 April 2008 2:09:57 am you wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 3:17 AM, Kent Loobey <kent at uoregon.edu>  
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> I was thinking about code documentation this morning.  If the  
> >>>>> code is
> >>>>> supposed to be readable all over the world then how does the  
> >>>>> comments
> >>>>> within the code get translated?
> >>>>>
> >>>>   I thought same thing.  Source text is just text, I don't think we
> >>>> want to embed comments for each language in same place (quite
> >>>> difficult to read!)....   Traditional code editing tools don't fit
> >>>> well here.  Any clue?
> >>>>
> >>> I considered putting a number with each comment and then in a  
> >>> separate file
> >>> putting a description for each number.  However I think it would  
> >>> be better if
> >>> the translated descriptions are inserted directly into the code  
> >>> where they
> >>> apply.
> >>>
> >>> A localization pre-processor might be run to insert translated  
> >>> text into the
> >>> activity/program.  I haven't done this myself but I know there are  
> >>> commenting
> >>> techniques that allow text to be pulled from programs to create a  
> >>> form of
> >>> rudimentary documentation.  Maybe we could do something along  
> >>> those lines and
> >>> then reverse the process and insert the translated text back into  
> >>> the
> >>> program.  Maybe only """ commented text """ text would be  
> >>> translated.
> >>>
> >>> Helping kids learn how to program is no different to me then  
> >>> facilitating
> >>> their learning anything else.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>   Besides comments in code, we understand code by name of class,
> >>>> data, method.  Good code have good names showing meaning clearly  
> >>>> and
> >>>> that doesn't need much comment.
> >>>>
> >>> I have been programming for a long long ... long long time.  I  
> >>> have not
> >>> however programmed in Python before.  Python code by itself is not  
> >>> self
> >>> explanatory.  So I don't believe that someone who has never  
> >>> programmed before
> >>> could look at a Python program even with excellent class names and  
> >>> def names
> >>> could figure out how it works.
> >>>
> >>> I agree that the constructs of a program are really just tags and  
> >>> don't make
> >>> much difference what language they are in, i.e., a loop by any  
> >>> other name
> >>> still just loops.  Knowing why the loop is there is important to
> >>> understanding what the program is doing and that takes language.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>   I think those are usually named in English if the code is  
> >>>> indented
> >>>> to be used globally.  So English skill might be needed anyway to
> >>>> understand the code very well ...
> >>>>
> >>>> /Korakurider
> 
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-- 
 Khaled Hosny
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