Subject: Re: gitk : french translation

From: Maximilien Noal <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:11:38 +0100

Nicolas Sebrecht wrote :
>>> I disagree here. Words like "diff", "commit", "patch", etc should be
>>> kept as is. Translation of those terms make things harder for the users.
>> I agree with you when those terms refers to _commands_ names, but the
>> main goal of a
>> translation is to _translate_ and we have to make the best effort to
>> use french word if they _exist_
> 
> I don't think so. Here is _why_: the user-frienliness of a translated
> software comes from "how hard is it to connect a word with the
> underlying concept".
> 
> IOW, we want to have good words to refer to the _concepts_. In the
> computer science world (and more _specially_ for a SCM), those concepts
> are much more well-known with the english terms. Keeping english words
> help users to directly understand what it is about, without making the
> users have to search for "what the fucking translators are refering to
> here?".
Why not put the translation first, then the english word between () ?
At least for English words above that are not used by French devs "as 
is" (not like "diff") ?

That way, newbies to SCMs' concepts get the idea, and old SCM users 
don't have to translate back.

But if it isn't done _everywhere_ (and not used anywhere for words we 
don't want to translate because there's no need or no good translation, 
like "diff" for the first case, and "patch" for the second one), it will 
make the situation worse.

Just my two cents.