GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 162536
Unusual English in gnome-utils gsearchtool schema messages
Last modified: 2009-08-15 18:40:50 UTC
#: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:5 msgid "Select Contains the Text" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:6 msgid "Select Date Modified Less Than" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:7 msgid "Select Date Modified More Than" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:8 msgid "Select File is Empty" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:9 msgid "Select Follow Symbolic Links" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:10 msgid "Select Include Other Filesystems" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:11 msgid "Select Name Matches Regular Expression" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:12 msgid "Select Name does not Contain" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:13 msgid "Select Owned by Group" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:14 msgid "Select Owned by User" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:15 msgid "Select Owner is Unrecognized" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:16 msgid "Select Show Hidden Files and Folders" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:17 msgid "Select Size At Least" #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:18 msgid "Select Size At Most" These messages were very weird when I read them in order to try to translate them. To me, "select" is a verb. When I checked with M-W (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=select) it seems "select" can also be used as a noun, meaning "one that is selected". However, I think using nouns that can be confused with verbs should be avoided if possible, so I propose that "Select" is replaced with "Selected Item" in the above messages (this is what they're supposed to mean, right?).
Still, this message seems weird: #: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:10 msgid "Select Include Other Filesystems" Shouldn't it be "Select Includes Other Filesystems" ? ^
#: gsearchtool/gnome-search-tool.schemas.in.h:16 msgid "Select Show Hidden Files and Folders" This message also puzzles me. Even if I assume it means "Select Shows Hidden Files and Folders", the message still doesn't make any sense to me. How are translators supposed to translate this?
I think the part after the "Select" in each message is the name of the gsearchtool command, and these messages describe the action of selecting these commands. But you're right, on their own they look weird. Maybe or "Select : ..." or "Select command : ..." would look more clear ? Dennis ?
Hmm... maybe "Select the command \"Size At Most\"" ? This would perhaps make the meaning a litte more clear. In addition, providing comments for translators describing what this is would make their life easier. How to add translator comments to schema files is described in bug 131505.
I am leaning towards, "Select the search option, \"Size At Most\"". The quoted text is not a command. It is a search option. I should probably quote the search option names in the long descriptions too. Does the following translator comment help? <!-- Translators: The quoted text is the label of an available search option. -->
Sounds good. I would leave out the comma, though: "Select the search option \"Size At Most\"" Such a comment would be most helpful. Perhaps an addition that the search option is to be translated elsewhere would also help: <!-- Translators: The quoted text is the label of an available search option that is translated elsewhere. --> That would help highlighting the fact that the search option needs to be translated to the same string here as well. If such a comment could be added for all the affected strings, I think this problem is very well solved.
A patch has been applied to cvs head. Please reopen if you find any problems. Thanks. 2004-12-30 Dennis Cranston <dennis_cranston@yahoo.com> * gnome-search-tool.schemas.in: Add translator comments, and rephrase some descriptions. Fixes Bug #162536.
Hmm, it seems that these messages will no longer be extracted by the latest intltool (0.32.1). Cc:ing Danilo since he's the intltool expert.
Changing status to NEEDINFO.
This is not the format intltool expects. Until we switch to proper XML parser for schemas files as well, please use something like the following: <locale name="C"> <short><!-- Translators: The quoted text is the label of an available search option that is translated elsewhere. -->Select the search option "Date modified less than"</short> <long> This key determines if the "Date modified less than" search option is selected when the search tool is started. </long> </locale> I.e. put a comment *inside* <short>, <long> or <default> tags, and right after opening tags, preceded with optional whitespace. I don't want to make current regular expression any more complicated, or we'll end up with more problems than we're trying to solve.
Created attachment 35321 [details] [review] Fix schemas to cope with intltool-extract Here's a patch to fix schemas so intltool-extract extracts both comments and strings correctly
A patch based on your attachment has been applied to cvs head. Thanks for the help.