GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 763957
ambiguous string for translation
Last modified: 2016-03-21 02:58:57 UTC
Consider the message: #. When asking for MX record in DNS context #: ../src/main.c:670 msgid "Mailbox Exchange" msgstr "" It is not clear whether this is exchange (the word; to be translated) or Exchange (name of a Microsoft product; not to be translated). A translator comment would be very welcome explaining this. Right now, there are many translations that assume both interpretations, so this likely presents errors in 10+ languages.
Hmmm... It already has a comment: # When asking for MX record in DNS context I will add another one, considering that this one seems to be ignored.
I committed the following change in master: - /* When asking for MX record in DNS context */ + /* Translators: Mailbox Exchange refers to a DNS record. + It defines the priority of mail servers to contact + to deliver an email. + It has nothing to do with e-mail clients. + See https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5321#section-3.6.2 + */
Well, developers and translators think a bit differently :). My interpretation of all this (and thinking for a long time) is "Mailbox exchange is a request that can be sent to a server to relay e-mails". That, I think, is a comment that translators would immediately understand - if it is quite correct. Very few translators have the specialization needed to understand the linked specification, but including the link is good for completeness. Actually I assumed that the comment was not meant for translators at all. It starts with MX, and once I see something that I have no immediate chance of understanding, I assume it's for the developers but just happens to be before a translatable string (that happens quite frequently).