[Localization] Level

[Chris Leonard]

On Sat, Apr 9, 2016 at 2:49 PM, Markus Schlager <m.slg at gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> What is the activity 'Level' about? I have no idea how to translate this
> title.


Hi Markus,

I had been thinking about posting on describing the precise meaning of
the term "Level" as it appears in that activity and explaining the
other strings.  You question gives me that opportunity.

In short, this activity uses the XO-4 internal accelerometer to
measure the tilt of the laptop in the horizontal plane and display x
and y coordinates (to two decimal places).  lionaneesh developed it
and it is sort of cool, IMHO.

https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Level_Tool

The only three strings in the PO file are.


Level
x: %.2f
y: %.2f


In this context, the meaning of the word Level would be a verb form
(we try to name activities with verbs to show they are for "doing")
and it would represent that action of making something flat in the
horizontal plane.

"She levels the sand before building a castle."

It does NOT have the connotation of "height", as in "the sound level
is too high".

If a verb form of"level" is awkward or not available, a noun form
describing the instrument used to measure flatness in the horizontal
plane, would be acceptable and an accurate description of the function
the activity provides.

As for the other two strings

x: %.2f
y: %.2f

The x and y represent the lower-case x and y symbols employed to
describe two of the axes in the Cartesian coordinate system, they are
not really the Latin alphabet letters themselves, but those letters
used as symbols to represent a mathematical concept, in the same
manner that the Greek letter "π" or pi is used to represent the ratio
of a circle's circumference to it's diameter.  For many languages,
there will be no need to change the x or y symbol at all, because the
true source language of "mathematics" has a certain universality.  The
rest of those two strings "%.2f" instructs the program to display
numbers with two decimal points of precision and should not be changed
in L10n.

Does that help?

cjl