[PD] call for translations for new Pd GUI

Hans-Christoph Steiner hans at at.or.at
Fri Aug 21 23:08:48 CEST 2009


On Aug 21, 2009, at 2:57 PM, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Aug 2009, George Ker wrote:
>
>> I recommend for terms like: Object, Atom Box, Symbol, Bang, Slider,  
>> Patch etc that no Greek translation should be done. Yes, of course  
>> I know what an "Object" means , and "Atom Box" could easily be  
>> translated, but wouldn't it be a drawback for users?
>
> When I originally got 17 translations of Pd some years ago, what I  
> received mostly translated "Slider" into their own language (a  
> majority of the 16 non-English language files), instead of keeping  
> it as-is. It depends on which word. Toggle was less often  
> translated, and Bang was almost always kept as-is.
>
> I think it's mostly better to translate the words than not, even  
> though a fair amount of the population sticks with English just so  
> that the computer vocabulary is in English. There is plenty of room  
> for localisations that would use the English words for computer  
> vocabulary, but somehow, it seems no-one ever bothers making any.
>
> I live in a society where the opposition between the two manners of  
> speaking is intense. Basically, we're so self-conscious about how  
> much English we use in talking about computer things, that we can't  
> possibly write a book with those words: all those words have to be  
> translated to French. AFAIK, other places in the world are becoming  
> more sensitive to that. I just happened to live in a place where it  
> mattered more and it mattered earlier.
>
>> Even for me, the translator of the app would be confusing if all  
>> tutorials / help patches/ lists were using them... and then I had  
>> to face with terms: Object, Slider, Patch, DSP etc translated in  
>> Greek language in my installed App! I asked a friend of mine and he  
>> wouldn't use the translated app either! I find it like translating  
>> the MIDI acronyms. Too ugly and scary...
>
> Where's the ugliness coming from? a shame insidiously infused into  
> your people by the American Empire? You didn't question the beauty  
> of the English words when you learned them, did you? I didn't  
> either. I talk like that because it's a problem that I'm all too  
> familiar with. It took me a long time to figure out the "ugliness"  
> factor... and factor it out... to the extent that we can.
>
> Besides, much of my computer is running in English, because I've ran  
> it in English for way too long, out of habit, just like you; yet if  
> I set up Linux in some (French-language) institution, I install it  
> in French without asking anyone's advice. It's just normal. I may  
> switch my own computer to French someday, and I already switched the  
> default language of webpages to be French (but it only works on  
> multilanguage pages that support it and detect it).
>
>> I don't mind about the licence but wouldn't it be right for me to  
>> impress girls in my college more easily after my work in  
>> translation of the PD app????
>
> Contrast this with the DesireData translations in which not only the  
> translator's name is at the top of the file, it's also in Help- 
> >About. I am very proud of having gotten translations. But then,  
> DesireData's translations cover much more than 10 times the amount  
> of text that Hans' project does. Perhaps it's a matter of scale and  
> eventually more translators would demand that credit is given where  
> credit is due.


The standard .po header will make the job of tracking attributions  
easy, I think the idea of including the translators in the About page  
is a good one.  The only roadblock to that is someone creating the  
About page.

.hc



>> 	-The last and more serious problem is that I can't test my gr.po  
>> file. Everything needs to be done with sudo to run and be installed  
>> properly
>
> From the experience of my own project, I can say it's a lot nicer to  
> be able to test things without having to do "make install".
>
> To skip the sudo, you could use ./configure's --prefix option  
> combined with a custom PATH (if you need one).
>
> _ _ __ ___ _____ ________ _____________ _____________________ ...
> | Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801, Montréal,  
> Québec_______________________________________________
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I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my  
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how to use my telephone."  --Bjarne Stroustrup





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