[Localization] Best practices for developers

[James Simmons]

Bert,

I did have a chance to try out using %s in translated strings and it
worked fine, so I modified the chapter on Pootle in the book to
recommend the technique.  As the book is intended for beginners I
think what I put in there is adequate.

James Simmons


On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 3:03 PM, Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:
> On 08.03.2010, at 15:44, Clytie Siddall wrote:
>>
>> Reminder for developers: long strings are bad localization practice! Translators avoid them, since they have very little time available (thus you don't get the translation); there's much more room for error and confusion (so you get bad translations); translators can't review the string properly (more errors); and finally, most translation editors don't expect long strings, so they don't handle them well (confused and grumpy translators).
>
> Is there as document somewhere for "best practices" in making activities translatable?
>
> I found an old discussion on the OLPC wiki:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Python_i18n
>
> And this on the Sugar wiki:
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Translation_Team/i18n_Best_Practices
>
> But I'm pretty sure I've seen a more general discussion somewhere ...
>
> James is going to add some of these hints to his activity developing book:
> http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/ActivitiesGuideSugar/GoingInternationalWithPootle
>
> So if you feel there is something you need budding activity developers to know, tell him ;)
>
> - Bert -
>
>