Ubuntu
software-center package

Inconsistent or not clear strings for l10n

Bug #841000 reported by Milo Casagrande
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ubuntu Translations
Fix Released
Medium
Unassigned
software-center (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Kiwinote

Bug Description

Five redundant or unclear strings causing small localization problems.

= 1 =

softwarecenter/ui/gtk/softwarepane.py contains this string:
Try <a href="search-unsupported:">the %(amount)d item that matches</a> in software not maintained by Canonical.
Try <a href="search-unsupported:">the %(amount)d items that match</a> in software not maintained by Canonical.

softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/widgets/searchaid.py contains this string, which is nearly identical:
Try <a href="search-unsupported:">the %(amount)d item that matches</a> in software not maintained by Canonical
Try <a href="search-unsupported:">the %(amount)d items that match</a> in software not maintained by Canonical

The version with the periods is correct, and harmonizing them would reduce translation effort required.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#More_helpful_search_screen_for_no_results>

= 2 =

These strings are nearly identical, again with periods, and with ":" instead of "/":
Try <a href="search-parent/">the item in %(category)s</a> that matches
Try <a href="search-parent/">the %(n)d items in %(category)s</a> that match
and
Try <a href="search-parent:">the item in %(category)s</a> that matches.
Try <a href="search-parent:">the %(n)d items in %(category)s</a> that match.

Again, the text with periods is correct.

= 3 =

ETA: %s (located in ../softwarecenter/ui/gtk/pendingview.py)

Non-tech people might don't even know what that acronym stands for.

= 4 =

Modify Your %s Review (located in various files)

Probably should be "Edit". <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter/RatingsAndReviews#review-layout>

If not, it could be interesting to have a "named" variable or a translator comments, since in many languages that %s could be positioned in different parts of the sentence based on what will be substituted with it.

= 5 =

No items match %s%s%s (located in ../softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/widgets/searchaid.py)
No items in %s match %s%s%s (located in ../softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/widgets/searchaid.py)

Here the triple %s will be substituted with: "%s" (using the Unicode char for the double quote)
Many languages might use different double quotes rather than the hard coded Unicode ones. I don't know if that has been done for some specific reasons, but it could be interesting to have those quotes directly in the translatable string.

See original description
Milo Casagrande (milo)
summary: - Inconsistent or not clear string for l10n
+ Inconsistent or not clear strings for l10n
Gabor Kelemen (kelemeng)
Changed in ubuntu-translations:
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Medium
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

To my untrained eye, the first two pairs look like they're correctly set up as plural forms: they're both using gettext.ngettext(). What do you mean by "inconsistent"?

"ETA: %s" shouldn't be in the UI at all. It looks like it's used only in the GTK2 UI, so maybe it can just be removed.

"Modify Your %s Review" probably should be just "Edit". <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter/RatingsAndReviews#review-layout>

Revision history for this message
Gabor Kelemen (kelemeng) wrote :

Matthew: inconsistent here means that the strings are almost identical. If they were, we would not need to translate them twice. Can they be made identical, or that little difference really means so much?

Revision history for this message
Milo Casagrande (milo) wrote : Re: [Bug 841000] Re: Inconsistent or not clear strings for l10n

Hi Thomas,

On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 13:17, Matthew Paul Thomas <email address hidden> wrote:
> To my untrained eye, the first two pairs look like they're correctly set
> up as plural forms: they're both using gettext.ngettext(). What do you
> mean by "inconsistent"?

they are correct with regards to the plural form, yes, I was pointing
to the fact that these:

Try <a href="search-unsupported:">the %(amount)d item that matches</a>
in software not maintained by Canonical.
Try <a href="search-unsupported:">the %(amount)d items that match</a>
in software not maintained by Canonical.

end with a full-stop, while these don't:

Try <a href="search-unsupported:">the %(amount)d item that matches</a>
in software not maintained by Canonical
Try <a href="search-unsupported:">the %(amount)d items that match</a>
in software not maintained by Canonical

and they are basically the same. Having them more consistent, means
that there will be only one entry to translate for us instead of two.

The same almost applies here too, with these:

Try <a href="search-parent/">the item in %(category)s</a> that matches
Try <a href="search-parent/">the %(n)d items in %(category)s</a> that match

And these:

Try <a href="search-parent:">the item in %(category)s</a> that matches.
Try <a href="search-parent:">the %(n)d items in %(category)s</a> that match.

The difference is in the full-stop at the end of the sentence, and in
this case the use of / instead of : in the href field.
Don't know if that is a GTK2/3 difference for hrefs.

Ciao.

--
Milo Casagrande <email address hidden>

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

Now I understand. Thanks for the explanation. :-)

Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)
description: updated
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
Kiwinote (kiwinote) wrote :

Looks like everything here is fixed minus point 4 - I've updated that string to use a named argument.

Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Kiwinote (kiwinote)
importance: Medium → Low
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package software-center - 5.1.5.1

---------------
software-center (5.1.5.1) precise; urgency=low

  [ Kiwinote ]
  * utils/submit_review_gtk3.py:
    - use named argument as per (LP: #841000)
  * trigger .pot file rebuild

  [ Didier Roche ]
  * lp:~didrocks/software-center/oneconf-remove-computers-from-share
    - Enable (from the new spec) removing a host which isn't the
      current one from the gui.
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:03:01 +0100

Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Gabor Kelemen (kelemeng)
Changed in ubuntu-translations:
status: Triaged → Fix Released
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