[Xfce-i18n] About German translations

[Fabian Nowak]

> >> > 	     - If a group of labels ends with ":" in English, don't
> >> > drop the ":" in some of their German translations but not in
> >> > others.
> >> 
> >> 	Ah yes, when there are 20 strings marked fuzzy and you repair
> >> one by one, some msgstrings might stay unchanged with the colon left
> >> or removed -- part of the revisioning process.
> >
> >Ideally you'd translate, then install the translations and see how they
> >look in the actual UI. If you do that, you'll notice the differences.
> 
> Isn't this the way all translators should work?
> Translating without testing/viewing the translation doesn't seem
> reasonable to me. At least with some basic testing(install the updated
> translation and start the app) most typos and errors can be killed
> before anything is committed.

For sure, and you see most strings, but not those on the command line,
not the error messages, and you ignore some as well incidentally.

> 
> 
> >> Though, it sometimes is better to use an individual style for the
> >> translations, thus always using the colon or never in contrast to the
> >> original strings. In most cases, tooltip texts are concerned where
> >> ending them with a regular period is preferrable independently from
> >> what the developer chose formerly.
> >
> >What do you mean by "individual style"? Of course whether to append
> >colons or not depends on how it is usually done in your language. And
> >that has to be consistent.
> 
> Well, in German we have a pretty clear ruleset for sentences, the most
> simple one is S-P-O, "Subjekt-Prädikat-Objekt", if these three criteria
> are met, it's a sentence and has to be ended with a full stop. Of
> course this is not the only rule but it's pretty good as a base.

:) 

> 
> 
> >> > 
> >> >   b) - "Enable" does not mean "einstellen". It means "aktivieren",
> >> >        "einschalten", "verwenden", "benutzen" or whatever depending
> >> > on the context it is used in. 
> >> 
> >> Uuh, you can't say that in general. The thing is that sometimes the
> >> devs themselves just use *some* string; and the translators have to
> >> fix it by choosing the correct words, not the direct translation. Of
> >> course, you might still be right; please point to the exact
> >> translation then.
> >
> >It's right, a lot of our English strings could use some improvements.
> >But "einstellen" is neutral (it doesn't say whether something is
> >going to be activated or deactivated) whereas "enable" clearly is the
> >opposite of "disable" and thus explains what it does.
> 
> 
> Full ACK.
> "enable" has never a similar meaning as "einstellen".

Contra, but seee other post, I admit its confusing when it can be
misunderstood in that very context. But you do it with your favorite
music player and other things among "anstellen, aktivieren".

> 
> >> >      - "Button" is not "Knopf" - it's "Schaltfläche"! 
> >> 
> >> Button is "Knopf". See your given URL, way more translations for
> >> "Knopf". Thus, I asked a MAC user how she would translate it. Her
> >> first reply was "Knopf". Asked about what to expect from
> >> "Schaltfläche", she answered "a wide button", meaning like a toggle
> >> button. She later admitted, that Apple might have chosen
> >> "Schaltfläche" everywhere, but asked on how to label the OK buttons
> >> on the small information dialogs etc, she answered "Knopf" again. So
> >> it depends on the context; but in general, "Knopf" is correct,
> >> "Schaltfläche" is something different. (Actually, one part of my
> >> in-depth examinations at university was usability in real-time
> >> systems such as big terminals etc.: Human-Machine Interfaces in
> >> Production Environments)
> >
> >(That doesn't impress me too much. My minor subject at the University
> >is all about user interfaces and usability as well.)
> >
> >Personally, I strongly prefer "Schaltfläche". But I agree that you can
> >argue about that. If you check
> >http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaltfl%C3%A4che or
> >http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafische_Benutzeroberfl%C3%A4che you'll
> >not find "Knopf" anywhere. To me it sounds just wrong.
> 
> Full ACK again.
> 'Knopf' sucks. It reminds of the buttons I have on my jacket to close
> it when I'm freezing :D.

And this is where it comes from. You can push it, there's an action.
That's actually just the poit why I do not like  the toggle button-like
"Schaltfläche".

Cheers

Fabian