Re: Accelerator I18N [was: I don't wont the f* underlinings ...]
"Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull(a)sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> writes:
>>>>> "Hrvoje" == Hrvoje Niksic
<hniksic(a)iskon.hr> writes:
>> By the way, Ben's improvements have made a bunch of work for
>> menubar localizers (who already have localized menus to work
>> with---obviously it doesn't matter for those who will be
>> starting fresh).
Hrvoje> Yes. Most improvements make a bunch of work for someone.
Hrvoje> Translators should be prepared to deal with a moving
Hrvoje> target.
Definitely not.
Definitely _yes_, or they shouldn't have become translators in the
first place. I know because I've worked somewhat on translating
programs to Croatian. One's desire to have things translated to his
tongue should not reduce the developer's freedom to change the
program.
We don't make API changes without discussion beforehand, we
should
not make extensive menu changes (other than adding new
functionality) without similar discussion. Assuming we take I18N
halfway seriously.
That's your opinion. I say otherwise.
By your standards, nothing UI-wise in XEmacs would ever change,
because there's always a possibility that _someone_ in _some_ language
would misunderstand/misparse _something_. I can't hope to disprove
that claim.
What I do claim is that _English_ menus are written for people who
understand _English_. Croatians, Japanese, Thai, etc. without proper
knowledge of English will fail to understand them. Well, that's what
translations are for. If that means "fuck I18N" in your book, then
you have a pretty weird notion of I18N.
Uh, and the Japanese better get used to Internet not being IE and
Netscape. It's for their own good. :-)