Re: [Monotone-devel] usabilty of translations

[Thomas Keller]

Am 29.05.10 15:34, schrieb Zbigniew Zagórski:
> Hi,
> 
> What do you think about internalization of software like monotone ? I
> know that there are few localizations (currently INST_LINGUAS = sv it
> de es pt).
> 
> I am wondering if there is for more translation - at least I can
> easily add polish translation. But i am worried about two things:
> 
> 1) Would anyone use it ?
> 
> I know that amongst developers (at least professional ones), there is
> strong movement to use english-only UI/termsinstead native ones -
> ad-hoc created terms create only confusion and thus are problematic
> (at least polish IT/CS terminology/vocabulary is week) . YYMV but in
> my experience- use only english terms.
> 
> So then ... I this experience is similar to yours?
> 
> 2) Do you encountered any "non-developer" users of monotone or VSC /
> SCM who would need / understand and use these ideas ? Do you (authors
> of these translations) use them ?
> 
> And last final question:
> Are there any polish people on list who would like to see polish
> messages in monotone UI?

I think the usefulness of a translation rises and falls with its
quality. If the translator does a bad job and replaces many widely known
English terms with less widely known localized ones, than, well, he did
a bad job.

We should however not underestimate the amount of translations in
monotone which consist of more than an array of short terms: Here the
translation of command explanations or longer error messages should
surely help the understanding of a monotone novice.

So, I can only answer for myself, I do like localized programs, because
while my English understanding is quite good, my native one is better
and even quicker. I can only encourage you to do the Polish translation,
because I believe if you don't know any Polish monotone users until now,
you'll certainly get to know some afterwards :)

Thomas.

-- 
GPG-Key 0x160D1092 | address@hidden | http://thomaskeller.biz
Please note that according to the EU law on data retention, information
on every electronic information exchange might be retained for a period
of six months or longer: http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/?lang=en

signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature