Re: Translation of numeric values (application gnome-schedule)

["Raphael Higino" <raphaelh uai com br>]

De: "Philip Van Hoof" <spamfrommailing freax org>
> Unless we use multiple lines we cannot show it the way you propose. It
> would look like this:
>
>
> Untitled | At this hour: 2             | ls |
>          | At this minute: 1           |    |
>          | At this day of the month: 3 |    |
>
> This is as hard as ... to understand
>
> Untitled | 1 2 3 * * | ls |
>
> What I mean with that is that the user still has to compute the actual
> frequency using that thing we call 'his or her brains'. It's still not
> something a human brain can understand in a glitch. Which is IMHO the
> responsibility of a userinterface. Computers can be programmed to make
> it supersupersuper simple for people. Lets use that capacity. Even if
> that means putting some more efforts in our translations and
> translation-related code.

I didn't want to get into this subject again, but I had to.

I'm an Information Systems student, and because of this I gotta agree with
Philip. We all *must* use that capacity of computers. We have to remember:
we are not programming just for us, but for our users too. We have to help
them.

> The usage of such multiple lines would destroy the purpose of gnome-
> schedule: To simplify the system-schedule and to make it accessible for
> non-highlander but moral and sane people who will not live forever so
> that they can learn every little detail in life (like the format of a
> crontab-record). The average user will NOT accept such a format. Nether
> do I. Whats more, I don't WANT my users to accept it. Because -it-is-
> unacceptable.

Neither do I.

Here in Brazil people use this kind of problems in some Unix/Linux softwares
to continue using proprietary software and to not migrate to free software.
They say "Linux is difficult to use" just because some applications are.

People from countries like mine shouldn't use proprietary software just for
moral reasons but, unfortunetly, also for economic reasons. With softwares
which don't help the unexperienced and the average user (which are the most)
they will keep spending lots of money with software they just think are
easier to use. They could be spending this money on education, instead.

If the purpose of gnome-schedule is to simplify crontab use for this kind of
user, so it's a very good purpose.

> If that means that the application will be 99% translation-specific and
> 1% other things, then thats what the application is all about :-).
> Gnome-schedule is about translating a complex thing like the crontab to
> normal person, a normal user. NOT a Unix freak or somebody who can
> understand why the formatting of the frequency sucks. I don't want the
> user to understand why it sucks, I want the formatting to be descriptive
> and correct.

If "use that capacity of computers" means make 99% of the code just for
doing it and Philip doesn't matter doing that by the hardest way, then I
think it's acceptable. Let me be a little bit selfish: I won't code, so I
don't matter too.

So, Philip, I accept the chalenge to translate gnome-schedule with the
things you said you're gonna do, but don't make it so difficult for the
l10n'ers. ;-) I'll translate your application, and I want to do a very good
work.

> And for the Unix-geek, we still have the "View"->"Advanced" switch in
> the menus. This switch will make the treeview look just like how a
> crontab record looks (or an at record, once at is fully supported).

I don't wanna look like AST trying to tell Torvalds how to do his kernel,
but sometimes it's good to use some things we learn at the university, and
this last one is a good UI directive: do it for the unexperienced, the
average and for the advanced users.

> I can find more peace in maintaining lots of translation-specific code
> than I am when I have to cripple the format of the frequency.

Again. If you're in peace, so God (or any other name you want) bless your
coding times. :-)

Raphael Higino
-------------------
Brazilian GNOME L10N Team
Montes Claros - Minas Gerais
Brasil