Localization in code

goran.hultgren at bluefish.se goran.hultgren at bluefish.se
Fri Sep 28 08:32:33 UTC 2001


Hi guys!

"Andreas Raab" <Andreas.Raab at gmx.de> wrote:
> Richard,
> 
> > I rather like having messages in separate files because
> 
> I don't mind having them in separate files ... what I *do* mind is having
> them in external files exclusively and no relation to the context they're
> used in.
> 
> > + You can give them to someone to translate who doesn't have to know
> >   about the programming language involved.
> 
> True and not true. As I said, the loss of context is a big issue here. It
> makes it extremely hard for that person to get an answer to the question "in
> what context are you using this phrase?!" which was effectively the only
> question we ever got from people translating stuff for us.
[SNIP]

I read Andreas vision for a Localization browser and I like it. I also
agree that mucking about with symbolic names for localized strings is
really ugly and a pain.

But the stuff about context above gives me one more idea - the ability
to translate strings DIRECTLY on the screen (so to speak) would be even
better than editing the code. This would abide to the Morphic value
"directness" (or whatever it's called) and that would REALLY keep all
the context!

For example, I would like to switch to "Svenska" (swedish), run the
system and when I find a String in the UI that is in english (fallback
on a default language when there is no swedish translation available) I
would like to translate it "in place" by using the halo after that it
would show the swedish translation.

Then of course, you would also be able to use a tool that can show you
places that still are not translated.

regards, Göran




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