Re: [Usability]Re: Controls, widgets, and UI learning.

[Tino Meinen <a t meinen chello nl>]

Op di 30-07-2002, om 12:19 schreef Christian Rose:

> > There is no real reason why "Controls" (as opposed to 
> > just "Control") should cause a translation problem. 
> 
> Agreed.

Well for one thing, "Controls" is ambiguous; i.e. it can be a noun or a
verb. So translators have to rely on the developers or documentors to
supply the context for the correct translation. My experience is, that
in these cases a context is hardly ever given. The translator has to
figure it out for himself.

"Widget" contrary to "Controls" doesn't have that problem.
It has another problem in that it is sometimes hard to find a good
translation for it, so is not always translated.
For people who are new to computers it can be term that is not easily
understood. In that sense Controls might be better. But it can give
problems too if people don't recognise that a Control doesn't
necessarily have to look like a control. There are even Widgets that
hardly control a thing (like a seperator line for instance?)

Personally I appreciate widget better than controls.

Tino Meinen
(Translates for Dutch language.)