GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 639794
Reuse GtkSwitch labels translation for switch menu item
Last modified: 2021-07-05 14:16:14 UTC
gnome-shell and gtk+ are currently providing different ways to allow translation for ON/OFF labels in their respective switch widget. GTK+ provides two separate translatable messages, "ON" and "OFF", and suggests translators to use MEDIUM VERTICAL BAR (U+2759) and WHITE CIRCLE (U+25CB) when the translated label could be longer then three gliphs. GNOME Shell, instead, provides a single translatable message, forcing translator to choose between ON/OFF and I/O. GTK+ approach seems better for some languages allowing them to use, for instance German, An/Aus In order to have a coherent appearance, could be good for gnome-shell follow GTK+ behavior (and even better directly reuse translations available in gtk+ avoiding duplicated messages) References: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-shell/tree/js/ui/popupMenu.js#n25 http://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/tree/gtk/gtkswitch.c#n552
I believe we basically copied iOS, which just has a split between English (or even en-US?), which gets words, and everyone else, who get the icons. But anyway, the point is to be "switch-like", and searching google images for "on/off switch" turns up lots of switches with "on" and "off" labels (in addition to switches with |/O labels), but I can't find any search string that brings up pictures of switches with "an" and "aus" labels, suggesting that switches in Germany aren't labelled that way, and so our switches shouldn't be either. Additionally, the "text" in the gnome-shell switches is actually part of the SVG, so it's not easily made translatable.
The An/Aus was from mclasen or IRC: <mclasen> if you give translators a chance to get it wrong, they reliably do <andre_> some language teams are constantly screwing it up, yeah <elleuca> not sure, but current gtkswitch approach seems more error prone, it allows any word as ON and OFF translation gnome-shell, instead, forces you to use ON/OF or |/O <mclasen> right but maybe Germans prefer An/Aus
(In reply to comment #2) > <mclasen> if you give translators a chance to get it wrong, they reliably do yeah, originally we had it translatable, with a big note explaining the right way to do it, and we got translations like "ENCENDIDO"/"APAGADO".
(In reply to comment #1) > but I can't find any search string that > brings up pictures of switches with "an" and "aus" labels, suggesting that > switches in Germany aren't labelled that way, and so our switches shouldn't be > either. Not sure about labels but switches in Europe hardly ever look like that widget. We either use flip switches where both labels are always visible or slide switches with labels surrounding the widget itself: 1 [<> ] 0 I [<> ] O ON [<> ] OFF The only switch I could find that resembled the current widget GTK and shell use was the voltage switch on the back of my office PC. With a little twist that the labels were physically attached to the moving part so when you slid it, it did not cover the other label, but pushed it out of the view instead. Isn't there a better way to represent the switches for the wider audience?
(In reply to comment #4) > Isn't there a better way to represent the switches for the wider audience? GtkCheckButton
*** Bug 739357 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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