Re: Challenges in translating GNOME recipes

[Fòram na Gàidhlig <fios foramnagaidhlig net>]

Sgrìobh Enrico na leanas 08/12/2016 aig 16:43:
> Hello everyone
>
> Matthias, I think the translations for the ingredients in a separated
> domain is a good idea to keep them organized and practical to translate
>
> About your mention to "My current approach is to provide separate
> translations for
> singular and plural, but I guess this way of doing this will never be
> entirely ngettext-ly correct.", have you considered using the gettext
> pluiral-forms
> (https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Plural-forms.html) ?
>
> Best regards,
> GNOME's pt_BR translation team

I agree with both points. For example, in Gaelic

1 cup = 1 chupa
2 cups = 2 chupa
3 cups = 3 cupannan
20 cups = 20 cupa

So, ngettext is definitely your ticket here.

You should also note that some languages change the order of words and
numbers according to plural forms, so you should always provide printf
placehodlers wherever possible. Code should look something like:

sprintf(ngettext("%d cup", "%d cups", cups), cups)

In general, don't use partial sentences without placeholders.

I went through a part of your PO file - some thoughts:

#: data/org.gnome.Recipes.desktop.in:6
msgid "org.gnome.Recipes"
msgstr ""

Looks like the app id, should that be translatable at all? I don't think so.


#: src/gr-details-page.ui:33
msgid ""
"Ingredients\n"
"gathered"

Provide a translator's comment for those - how much space is there
available on screen? How should the translator handle the line breaks if
there are more than 2 words? My translation would be something like
"Grìtheidean a chaidh a chuingeachadh" or "Grìtheidean air an
cuingeachadh", depending on context. Lose the \n and resolve it by
software if you can.

#: src/gr-details-page.ui:278
msgid "Cooked 5 times"

#: src/gr-edit-page.ui:105
msgid "Ser_ves"

These are prime candidate for the ngettext + placeholder treatment -
unless "Ser_ves" is a header.