Re: Repetitive strings in many modules

[Chris Leonard <cjlhomeaddress gmail com>]

On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 6:02 AM, Kenneth Nielsen <k nielsen81 gmail com> wrote:
> Den 17-09-2012 10:22, Alexandre Franke skrev:
>>
>> On Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 9:46 PM, Piotr Drąg <piotrdrag gmail com> wrote:
>>>
>>> This is actually an effect of
>>> https://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/PortToGMenu goal. The new menus
>>> don't use stock GTK+ entries for some reason.
>>
>>
>> Shouldn't we open a bug for that? Or maybe that's already been filed?
>
>
> I think the main point of the original post got lost a bit along the way.
>
> We already have a collection of stock menu (including strings) and menubar
> items in GTK+ to prevent introducing (and translating) these ~100[1] strings
> again and again, so the question is, why is it not being used. I can see a
> few different options here.
>
> 1) Developers don't like using them, because it puts a part of their program
> out of their control or something like that (unlikely I would say as GNOME
> is already built up around a set of shared libs).
> SOLUTION: Not much we can do about that unless the use of them made a
> priority by including them in a GNOME style guide or made a gnome goal or
> something like that.
>
> 2) Developers aren't aware of them or forget about them in the heat of
> writing brilliant code.
> SOLUTION: In that case we (translators) should then be making bugs for each
> module individually.
>
> 3) Developers forgot about them in the transition to GMenu. Unlikely I would
> say, that if they already used them that they wouldn't use them again if it
> was possible.
> SOLUTION: In any case the solution is the same as above
>
> 3) A bug in GMenu (or elsewhere) that prevents the use of them.
> SOLUTION: So to answer Piotr, yes, I think we should definitely file a bug
> about it. Then we just need to make sure that GMenu is the right place to
> file it.
>
> 4) Some technically unsolvable issue with GMenu that prevents using them.
> "SOLUTION": Moping :(
>
> So if there anyone here that can shed some light on which one of them is the
> right explanation?
>
> Regards Kenneth
>
> [1] http://developer.gnome.org/gtk/2.24/gtk-Stock-Items.html
>


I am very interested in the answers to Kenneth's questions about why
they might not be used.  Working towards "string" consistency and
easing the L10n burden are areas of interest to me.  Depending on the
answers to the scenarios posed (i.e. not 1 or 4), I could easily
imagine myself undertaking a search-and-file-bug project across Damned
Lies.  In going through the en_GB "translation" I have been filing a
reasonable number of "fix  typo" bugs and "please remove markup" bugs
(markup being related to another Gnome Goal)

Finding occurrences of the stock item strings throughout Damned Lies
hosted PO files is no particular challenge.  Developing a little text
template for quickly composing this type of bug is trivial.

Whether filing "please use stock strings" bugs (without a
corresponding patch) will achieve action, I can't say, but it is an
opportunity to educate developers and address cases 2 and 3 above.

I haven't been filing patches with my "fix typo" bugs because most
devs can (and hopefully will) do this trivially in their local clones
(I provide the PO location line and explicit recommendation for the
change), Besides we are in string freeze for a while longer anyway.  I
am likely to go back over those at my leisure and attach patches to
prompt further action if it is not taken by the devs in a "reasonable"
period of time.

If scenarios 2 or 3 are considered the likeliest causes, I might take
a stab at this.

cjl