[Xfce-i18n] About German translations

[Christian Dywan]

Am Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:35:23 +0200
schrieb Fabian Nowak <timystery at arcor.de>:
> > >
> > >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".

For the record, one needs to be aware that 'einstellen' can have
several meanings depending on the context. And 'to switch sth. on' can
actually be translated as 'etwas einstellen'. However I would
certainly agree that in the context of a user interface 'configure' is
the much more dominant meaning, unless expressly explained otherwise.

> > >
> > >(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".

From my experience I'm used to understand 'Schaltfläche' as the same
as a normal clickable button in English. The difference between
'Schaltfläche' and 'Knopf' is basically the level of formality. And I
think that's why 'Schaltfläche' is so dominant that it feels wrong not
to use it, comparable to the use of 'Sie' forms.

Just my 2 pfenning,
    Christian