[Localization] Problem: 2 translations for 1 string

[Markus Schlager]

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008, Korakurider wrote:

>    how and what to specify for context in source code actually seems not
>    clear.
> 
>   + At the time when source code is being written by developer with
> limited insight on various languages,
>   it would be difficult for developer to decide whether context is
> really needed for some phrase to distinguish it against other
> occurrence.
>   But I don't think we want to specify context to every phrases.
>   + We can specify any string as context, but some etoys specific
> guideline would be needed for what to specify.
> 
>    I would like to hear insight from someone with actual experience...
> 

Having raised this problem, the context-string  I'd suggest is simply the 
place where it's used, i.e. with eToys the message-selector.

Advantages:

* no extra effort to gather this information - it's in the .po-files 
already
* developers don't need to have any insight on various languages - that's, 
what translators are for, not developers
* you can do this easily for *all* phrases - hence you don't need to 
bother, which phrases might need context, which don't.

IMO it's way more likely a translator has enough insight into the subject 
he's translating (in this case how to use eToys and read 
squeak-source-code - which he has to do anyway to figure out, what might 
be ment by some phrases) than a developer is able to guess what might 
cause trouble in various languages.

Whenever I encounter a phrase which is not obvious to me, I try to get a 
sample-instance of the class mentioned in the message-selector and check 
it out. If that's not easily possible, I take a look at the source-code to 
understand, what is *meant* by the phrase I'm trying to translate. 

At least the problems we encountered with the German translation of etoys 
were all solved easily if we had an chance to split up translations 
depending on the place where the phrases are used, i.e. the 
message-selector.

Markus
-----------------------------------------------
 Markus Schlager               m.slg(at)gmx.de