Re: [Gnumed-devel] still having a hard time with address input and Search

[Karsten Hilbert]

On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 05:44:25PM -0700, Jim Busser wrote:

> 'Search' continues to bother me.
> 
> While I did think the earlier comments (re: 'like' being
> "unimaginative

I think I said "unintuitive" (to me and to people I asked
about it, that is). That's what I meant anyway.

> and untranslatable")

Translators will be faced with

        "like ..."

What are they supposed to translate this to ?

This is a high vs low context problem.

It could be translated

        "similar to ..."
        "I like this ..."
        "matching in appearance ..."
        "ähnlich ..."

Of course, translators can install the software and look up
where the term is used. Or else they can look at the source
to ascertain themselves of the proper interpretation.

Now, what if the same term is used in two contexts ? Once
meaning "similar" and once meaning "being amiable to" ? Of
course, each context within the software makes it clear but
translators do not have any technical solution left to them
unless the coders help them. That help usually is to use a
non-language string in the code like so:

        "like ...(meaning: similar to)"

Translators can then translate to:

        "ähnlich ...(meaning: similar to)"

and the code will strip out the common, explanatory part
"(meaning: similar to)" before actually using the
translation.

That is why I said: untranslatable.

Using this approach will make it no different for any
English vs non-English user which makes one wonder why apply
it (here) at all since one could have translated "Search" to
something more palatable in the first place just like I said
before.

(BTW, the add-explanation approach isn't really possible to
apply in this particular case because as far as GNUmed is
concerned the "like ..." would be hardcoded from within the
wxGlade code with gnarly a chance to post-process it).

Karsten
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