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Some English strings need fixing

Open Olf0 opened this issue 7 years ago • 5 comments

Hi @M4rtinK, when translating modRana (thanks for setting up a transifex project, as you announced in TMO post 1539194), I stumbled across some incorrect English (source) strings and a couple of awkward ones. Unfortunately I am not able to alter source strings (maybe I need admission to the language "English" at transifex for this).

  • In Settings --> Info --> About
    • <h3>Dou you like modRana ? <b>Donate !</b></h3> Suggestion: <h3>Do you like modRana? <b>Donate:</b></h3>
    • Further down there, all points (main developer:, email:, www:, source: and discussion:) start with a lower-case letter. Suggestion: Start all these strings with an upper-case letter and spell WWW:.
    • Discussion: is usually called Forum: nowadays, so this is my suggestion for that.
    • check (right behind Discussion: / Forum:) is superfluous, IMO: Please eliminate it.
  • In Settings --> Info --> Location: All points start with a lower-case letter. Suggestion: Start all these strings with an upper-case letter.
  • In Settings --> Info --> Speed: The unit should be km/h (not kmh), but surely mph.
  • location usage disabled<br>(you can enable it from <i>Options->Location</i> Suggestion: Location usage disabled<br>(You can enable it in <i>Options --> Location</i>) The closing bracket was missing etc.
  • You consequently spell modRana with a lower-case m (which makes sense, as it originally was a "mod" of Rana), except for in ModRana is a flexible navigation software for (not only) mobile Linux devices.! Suggestion: Also use a lower-case m in this string.

There are a couple of other points, I will address here (or change directly, if I am entitled / able to), when finishing the German translation.

Cheers, HTH and kudos for developing and maintaining modRana for so many years!

Olf0 avatar Dec 12 '17 21:12 Olf0

Hi @M4rtinK, when translating modRana (thanks for setting up a transifex project, as you announced in TMO post 1539194), I stumbled across some incorrect English (source) strings and a couple of awkward ones. Unfortunately I am not able to alter source strings (maybe I need admission to the language "English" at transifex for this).

The English source language is automatically generated from the source code, so any string need to be changed/fixed in the source code.

In Settings --> Info --> About

Dou you like modRana ? Donate !

Suggestion:

Do you like modRana? Donate:

Fixed.

Further down there, all points (main developer:, email:, www:, source: and discussion:) start with a lower-case letter.

Hmm, I guess it can be considered to be a sentence & looks like GitHub is doing that as well (Assignees/Labels/Projects/etc.) so let's do that as well. :)

Suggestion: Start all these strings with an upper-case letter and spell WWW:. Discussion: is usually called Forum: nowadays, so this is my suggestion for that.

Changed.

check (right behind Discussion: / Forum:) is superfluous, IMO: Please eliminate it.

That's in the Python resource only, right ? I've actually changed things recently and have actually dropped that string since, so this should not be an issue anymore. :)

In Settings --> Info --> Location: All points start with a lower-case letter. Suggestion: Start all these strings with an upper-case letter.

Changed.

In Settings --> Info --> Speed: The unit should be km/h (not kmh), but surely mph.

Oops, indeed! Fixed.

location usage disabled
(you can enable it from Options->Location Suggestion: Location usage disabled
(You can enable it in Options --> Location) The closing bracket was missing etc.

Fixed, thanks! :)

You consequently spell modRana with a lower-case m (which makes sense, as it originally was a "mod" of Rana), except for in ModRana is a flexible navigation software for (not only) mobile Linux devices.!

Yep, modRana as a name is definitely with lower case m, but in this case it's starting a sentence, in which case it should have a capital M as starting a sentence with lower case letter seems weird. But let's just remove the issue - I've changed the sentence to not start with modRana. :D

Suggestion: Also use a lower-case m in this string. There are a couple of other points, I will address here (or change directly, if I am entitled / able to), when finishing the German translation.

Just let me know and I'll fix it. :) Or I guess you can alternatively also open a pull request with the changes. :)

Cheers, HTH and kudos for developing and maintaining modRana for so many years!

Yeah, it will soon be 8 years, wow! I started modRana development as my bachelors thesis at the end of January 2010 and have been working on modRana ever since (was part of my masters thesis as well). :-)

M4rtinK avatar Dec 12 '17 23:12 M4rtinK

Done with the German translation.

General observations WRT the English source strings:

  • Please consider to let all strings start with an upper-case letter. Exceptions may exist, but they ought to have a real reason, IMO.
  • There are many duplicate strings. If this is technically unavoidable, that is O.K., but ...
  • ... some of the duplicate string slightly deviate in their spelling / notation, e.g. OSM Scout Server - on device (IMO not so good) vs. OSM Scout Server (on device) (better) and many more: Please unify those strings with the same content to have the same format.
  • Please consider a consistent use of closing punctuation, i.e.:
    • A full stop ., when it is a full sentence (with an object and a verb).
    • But always use :, when there is a related output or input field following the string.
    • Use ... only, if a new window is opened (this has been a general convention in software for long).
    • Rarely use an exclamation mark !, i.e. only when absolutely needed.
  • There are many very similar wordings, but it is unclear, if they mean the same or have a different connotation (I doubt it, in most cases), e.g. track, tracklog, track recording, trace, logging trace (what is the difference between them?) or map tile, tile (should be always map tile(s), IMO) etc. Please use as consistent wording as possible and clearly different wording, when something different is meant.
  • Some strings contains "hacker slang"; actually I did not care, until I tried to translate them, but "hacker slang" is implicitly English. Examples: UI for User interface (but I am not completely sure, if that is the right term there), Local instead of On device (not sure, if this is meant in all cases, could be "in proximity on the map" in some cases), Overlays instead of Overlay maps etc.
  • A bit related to the "hacker slang" are multiple omissions of words (i.e. short forms, because hackers "know what I mean"; and they indeed do, but not the average user), e.g. log path unknown (supposedly means Path to log file invalid or Path to log file not set), points (supposedly means Way points), Recorded tracklogs folder: (supposedly means Folder for recorded tracks:), fix in progress (supposedly means Determining position) and many more.
  • Sometimes inter-string consistentcy is lacking, e.g. walking, cycling, but car, which should be by car instead, to make it consistent. Edit: Or driving. Alternatively you could let them all start with "by / on", i.e. on foot, by bicycle and by automobile.
  • Does Residence mean Residential area (i.e. "housing area") or "Home" (ones own)?

HTH

Olf0 avatar Dec 13 '17 00:12 Olf0

Forgot one point: Do the strings Place and Search place refer to addresses, so Address and Search address might be more appropriate?

Olf0 avatar Dec 13 '17 00:12 Olf0

Wow @M4rtinK, thanks for your super-prompt reaction. Well, I will consider enhancing the English strings via PRs in the future. Reasons for not doing this today were:

  • I did not know how you would react, e.g. the mostly lower-case style could have been, because you like it this way.
  • My second posting addresses a some fundamental points, which require deep knowledge about modRana, which I lack, because I am still primarily using OSMand~, although I am about to switch to modRana / PoorMaps with OSM Scout Server.
  • Hence I need to have a version of modRana running with exactly the strings I am translating or trying to enhance, in order to have an idea how these strings are used in the program.
  • Thus I will come back to this after a new release of modRana at OpenRepos.

Olf0 avatar Dec 13 '17 00:12 Olf0

@M4rtinK, how to proceed technically with enhancing the source strings:

  1. Only look at files below /modules/gui_modules/gui_qt5/qml/ or also at other locations?
    Only look at *.qml files or also at other file types?
  2. Review all lines starting with text : and look for strings embedded within qsTr(""), correct?
    Do you prefer text: (without a space, mostly used) or text : (with space, consistent to other tags, but less often used in modRana)?
  3. Apply changes to a clone of the master branch or another one (e.g. master-qt5_navigation_ui)?
  4. Will the localisation file /translations/modrana.ts be automatically updated or do I have to insert the updated English strings there, too?
    The same question applies to all the /translations/harbour-modrana-*.ts files.
  5. Do the strings for the Python backend need special handling or are they integrated into aforementioned files? I originally expected them to be separated (looking at /translations/.tx/config), but that does not seem to be the case (anymore?).

Olf0 avatar Dec 22 '17 23:12 Olf0