Subject: Re: [PATCH] l10n: de.po: translate 265 new messages

From: Christian Stimming <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 22:56:10 +0200

Dear Ralf,

your changes are very good. However, I just noticed one specific stylistic 
issue with the existing German translation, which you've continued in the very 
same way:

Am Sonntag, 20. Mai 2012, 19:09:15 schrieb Ralf Thielow:
> +#: help.c:214
> +msgid "git commands available from elsewhere on your $PATH"
> +msgstr "Vorhandene Git-Kommandos irgendwo in deinem $PATH"
(and several more following)

The translation (both in the existing strings and in your newly added ones) 
addresses the user as "du" instead of "Sie" (for the non-German-speaking: "du" 
is the informal addressing, "Sie" is the formal addressing). However, in 
German software there are two main rules on this: 1. Don't address the user 
directly. Rather prefer passive forms over directly addressing the person. I 
know English software is much more permissive of this one. Hence, occasionally 
the German translator should take the freedom to change the wording so that 
the addressing of the user is replaced in the translation by some passive 
wording without the addressing of the user. 2. If the addressing of the user 
is unavoidable, the text should use "Sie" instead of "du". Addressing the user 
as "du" should be constrained to audiences which for sure always address each 
other as "du", such as certain educational settings and/or games and such (and 
maybe in the Ikea-Katalog, but even there they switched from Du to Sie and 
back again several times). Please try to avoid using "du" in developer tools' 
user-visible strings. Thanks a lot!

Regards,

Christian