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 Post subject: Generally about translations
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:21 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2017 4:43 am
Posts: 13
Location: Slovakia
My opinion:

1.) The method of translation in the program Winstep Xtreme is very difficult.

2.) In the *.ini files are all strings together. Missing strings distribution in some sections.

Example:

[PREFERENCES]
[DOCKS]
[MODULES]
[MODULES -> Clock Module]
[MODULES -> Weather Module]
[MODULES -> Other Module]
[THEMES]
.
.
.
[ETC]

The translator will understand better the text strings and functions of the program.

3.) The application Winstep Translator is useless because it itself does not contain any comments on the various functions of the program to be translated into another language.

4.) Basic english strings are incomplete because the program writes this strings to *.ini files sometimes after the first launch some parts of the program. When the translator translate this software into their language, some parts can not be translated in advance. Therefore translation is incomplete.

- these and others english strings are missing

example in WorkShelf and in Update Manager:

WorkShelf:

Enable Snap-to=
Unlock Hotspot Buttons=

Update Manager:

%1 Voice Pack=

5.) Big problem is in the translation of some strings, for example:

NextSTART:

line 222: None=

or

WorkShelf:

line 25: None=

The word "None" in Eastern European countries has many forms and grammar is used in the masculine, feminine and neuter genders, as well as the plural.

The programmer must therefore be applied this expression "None" in every part of the translation for each function separately.

There are more of such text strings used in this program.

I will be glad if you will take my comments seriously.

Thank's

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Procesor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60 GHz
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Screen Size: 1920 x 1080 px, 60 Hz


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 Post subject: Re: Generally about translations
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 6:06 pm 
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Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm
Posts: 11930
Nobody ever claimed translating the Winstep applications was an easy task, especially as the applications grow more and more complex (i.e.; every time adding more text to translate). :)

Likewise, Winstep is not like Microsoft, i.e.; it does not have nearly unlimited resources. If it did, it would hire professional translators to do/complete the translations before each release, instead of relying on the good will of its users.

Localization is thus provided 'as is', since it's always better to have *something* (even if incomplete) than having no localization at all.

In the same line, the Winstep Translator Helper application is not perfect, far from it, but having it is also much better than having to edit INI files directly.

I understand how difficult it can be to translate something when you have no context and that many errors crop in in the translations because of that, but, again, it is still better than nothing.

Context can be gained after-the-fact by doing the translations and then browsing the several UI pages using the translation you just did.

Again, I understand this is far from ideal, but it is what we have.

As for some strings being written to the INI files *after* installation, yes, that can happen.

Because resources here are limited, especially in terms of time, new phrases added to the application are also added to the language files automatically *by the application itself* as it runs into them, if they are not in the language file already.

It's not like I go around adding new English phrases one by one to each of the currently 28 supported languages, I let the application do it for me too. I wouldn't have time to code otherwise. :)

Usually I try to make sure all the new phrases introduced by a new release are present in the language files, but sometimes I might miss one or two if those phrases are not part of the UI but buried in the code somewhere as part of a prompt you only see under very specific circumstances.

The application will also try to translate some phrases that come from external sources (for instance, weather data from the weather module) and, if no such entries exists in the language files, they too are added automatically. This is actually a good thing as, when the translator sends his translations to Winstep, the new words are normally incorporated into the other languages afterwards as well.

There is also a question of which version you installed on your system. The language files for the latest version of the Winstep Update Manager, for instance, already include the '%1 Voice Pack' entry.

As for words like 'None' etc, I am Portuguese so I know all about the various genders, etc, that words can have and how difficult it can be to translate those words, especially with no context. Again, we can only do our best: for instance, the translation in Portuguese for 'None' would be 'Nenhum/a(s)' (note the added '/a(s)' at the end to take into account the two possible genders and singular/plural).

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Jorge Coelho
Winstep Xtreme - Xtreme Power!
http://www.winstep.net - Winstep Software Technologies


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