GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 648403
gnome-shell: 12-hour string translated as a 24-hour string
Last modified: 2012-08-20 14:46:10 UTC
Below reported problem also applies to Swedish translation (search for %l to find all relevant strings) +++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #648394 +++ The formats string in gnome-shell.po that are supposed to be a 12-hour time format: #. Translators: This is a time format with date used #. for AM/PM. #: ../js/ui/dateMenu.js:177 msgid "%a %b %e, %l:%M:%S %p" msgstr "%a, %e. %b, %H:%M:%S" #: ../js/ui/dateMenu.js:178 msgid "%a %b %e, %l:%M %p" msgstr "%a, %e. %b, %H:%M" #. Translators: This is a time format without date used #. for AM/PM. #: ../js/ui/dateMenu.js:182 msgid "%a %l:%M:%S %p" msgstr "%a %H:%M:%S" #: ../js/ui/dateMenu.js:183 msgid "%a %l:%M %p" msgstr "%a %H:%M" Are done as straight-up 24-hour time formats. This makes the switch in System Settings that is supposed to switch between 12-hour and 24-hour time do nothing, which looks buggy. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=698698 Compare the gnome-panel translation: #: ../applets/clock/calendar-window.c:316 ../applets/clock/clock.c:448 #: ../applets/clock/clock-location-tile.c:507 msgid "%l:%M %p" msgstr "%I:%M %p" Since the default value for the toggle switch is a 24-hour format (for all locales), I don't think it matters that 12-hour time with AM/PM isn't natural in German.
What is the purpose of having these strings translatable, if they are not meant to be adapted to each locale? Or, if they are to be adapted, what kind of adaption is permissible, if this, the most obvious one, is not? A 12-hour clock is still sometimes used in spoken language in Swedish, but hardly ever in text. By the way, %p is always empty in the sv locale.
(In reply to comment #1) > What is the purpose of having these strings translatable, if they are not meant > to be adapted to each locale? Or, if they are to be adapted, what kind of > adaption is permissible, if this, the most obvious one, is not? > > A 12-hour clock is still sometimes used in spoken language in Swedish, but > hardly ever in text. By the way, %p is always empty in the sv locale. Because there might be ordering or punctuation differences, largely. - It's fine if %p is always empty - the locale doesn't have accepted abbrevations, and the user decides to pick a 12 hour time, well, generally people do know the time within 12 hours or can look out the window. - If %p is always empty, it's also fine to omit it from the translation if the space before %p leaves a gap, though it might be better to strip leading/trailing whitespace within the gnome shell code. - If %p is always empty, then it *is* OK to make the separate format string for calendar events in 12-hour mode be a 24-hour format, since the user would be left guessing. But the strings for the clock panel still have to be 12-hour. Yes, some of that should make it's way into translator comments.
Fix for Swedish has been commited.
Closing as per comment #3.