GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 136836
"Templates" folder name is not being translated in templates window
Last modified: 2009-01-19 20:22:18 UTC
The "_Places" menu item in the spatial mode is filled with many virtual folder items: Computer Templates Trash Out of these, both "Computer" and "Trash" will display localized folder names in the resulting windows when those items are clicked upon. As an example of this, if I click the "Papperskorg" (Trash) entry when using Swedish, I get a resulting window called "Papperskorg" (Trash) in both the title and statusbar. If I click the "Dator" (Computer) entry when using Swedish, I get a resulting window called "Dator" (Computer) in both the title and statusbar. However, this is not the case for Templates. If I click the "Mallar" (Templates) entry when using Swedish, I get a resulting window called "Templates" in both the title and statusbar. This is both confusing and inconsistent from a localization point of view.
This is still the case with Nautilus 2.6.0. Anders, can you reproduce this with a newer Nautilus? I will attach a screenshot that shows the problem.
Created attachment 29180 [details] Screenshot that shows the untranslated templates window header
It is reproducible with *all* versions of nautilus. It simply displays the $HOME/Templates folder. That shows a deep problem we still have: When (if at all) and how folder i18n has to work for stock folders like ~/Desktop or ~/Templates. regs, Chris
I don't think the user sees any real difference between physical special folders and virtual special folders. They're all special folders that are referred to using localized names elsewhere in the interface, like in the menu that is also being shown in the screenshot. Try explaining to a user why the "Papperskorg" menu item displays the "Papperskorg" window, the "Cd-skapare" menu item the "Cd-skapare" window, but the "Mallar" menu item the "Templates" window, and why this window cannot simply be named "Mallar" aswell. There is no good explanation, because it breaks every possible user expectation here. The fact that there is currently no way to provide localized names for physical special folders is just evidence that there has been some flaw in the logic here -- either the Templates folder should be a virtual folder just like the other special folders, or there needs to be a way to display localized names for physical special folders.
Displaying physical folders localized is borked and awkward. Would you expect that you actually open something called "y" when a opening folder called "x"? Another possibility would be to create '"~/" _("Templates")' if a particular gconf key isn't set and then set that gconf key to this new template path. If it *is* set, we gracefully use the path set in the key. regs, Chris
> Displaying physical folders localized is borked and awkward. Would you expect > that you actually open something called "y" when a opening folder called "x"? Yes, if it's a special folder that's referred to as "y" throughout the interface. Please read what I wrote in comment 4. > Another possibility would be to create '"~/" _("Templates")' if a particular > gconf key isn't set and then set that gconf key to this new template path. > If it *is* set, we gracefully use the path set in the key. This most likely isn't going to work gracefully if the user switches locale. We should never localize and alter the physical names of folders, since it almost always becomes a mess physically on disk when the locale is then changed in some way.
ok, so looks like it's really the best to create a templates:// vfolder. regs, Chris
*** Bug 143307 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This has been discussed to death on d-d-l without a conclusion.
It's really tricky because "Mallar" is actually part of a file hierarchy. Should we display "home menthos Mallar" in the pathbar and as window title, but display "Templates" if the user is in /home/menthos?! This sounds scary and totally inconsistent. Translating "Mallar" to "Templates" in /home/menthos also sounds scary, considering that another file could have the same name.
Created attachment 51157 [details] Two folders with the same name As a comparison, OS X does let you make a folder that appears to have the same name as a special folder localized in the Finder. Underneath, the special folder still has the English name; I can't make a folder with the name "Library" no matter what localization I'm using.
I think everybody is constrained by implementation details of our filesystems :) I see nothing wrong with having two books named "Karamazov Brothers" on a single bookshelf: I'd be able to positionally differentiate between them, and sometimes even by their appearance (one might be soft- and other hardcover, one might be blue, other yellow, etc.). And yes, they may actually be different (the one version I have is actually a notebook, i.e. it contains blank pages inside, and the other is a real book). In the same way, there is nothing wrong having two different folders or files with the same name, but with different position, and possibly appearance (emblems, backgrounds, ...). Oh yeah, our ancient Unix-style of thinking doesn't fit this model well, but human mind doesn't really have a problem with it: file access API does have a problem with it, though :).
Created attachment 51261 [details] [review] Proposed (prelimitary) patch The attached changes most of the "Templates" occurrences to _("Templates"). Still highly experimental, although it seems to work pretty well. On a sidenote: IMHO, we shouldn't even allow to rename the templates folder, just like we don't allow to rename the home/desktop folder. Removal should be possible, though.
Setting patch status; we don't use GnomeVFS in Nautilus anymore. Also, is this still an issue?
Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!