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#1 2015-02-16 17:50:23

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,208
GitHub

[textpacks] Empty string or best guess?

This is a question for Textpattern users with non-English languages, and also for the development team.

In the instances where there are language packs with incomplete strings, which is best:

  • a blank entry so the Textpattern placeholder text is used
  • a best guess from a translation service like Google Translate

I know ‘best’ is subjective, but as an English language speaker on an English language CMS I don’t have much experience with multiple languages.

My take is that best guess beats empty string, and a translation that’s almost correct in the chosen language is better than a message_for_something_specific_goes_here placeholder.

What do you think?

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#2 2015-02-20 09:01:21

phiw13
Plugin Author
From: Japan
Registered: 2004-02-27
Posts: 3,135
Website

Re: [textpacks] Empty string or best guess?

Blank string.

Because you know, a word may mean something in one context, but something completely different, eventually offensive, in a different context, and free translation services don’t do a very good job at understanding context (ahem – they usually s**k).

To give you an example, slightly extreme. Some 15years ago there was, in Japan a car model (nissan, iirc) named ラプター (raptor) transliterated as ‘laputa’, which is not kind for Spanish speakers – written like that on the back of the car. Because that is how it is pronounced in Japanese…

Last edited by phiw13 (2015-02-20 09:10:59)


Where is that emoji for a solar powered submarine when you need it ?
Sand space – admin theme for Textpattern

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#3 2015-02-20 11:09:24

philwareham
Core designer
From: Haslemere, Surrey, UK
Registered: 2009-06-11
Posts: 3,564
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: [textpacks] Empty string or best guess?

I agree with Philippe – best to leave them empty than use some wonky translation.

I think that in the case of empty strings it reverts to the en-gb text strings, and then if that’s empty too uses the string name itself. I may be wrong on that.

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#4 2015-02-20 11:12:42

philwareham
Core designer
From: Haslemere, Surrey, UK
Registered: 2009-06-11
Posts: 3,564
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: [textpacks] Empty string or best guess?

By the way, there are some language in the RPC database that just don’t have the strings at all right now – totally missing the lines in their dataset – I’m gradually working through the RPC fixing those occurrences.

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#5 2015-02-20 11:23:24

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,208
GitHub

Re: [textpacks] Empty string or best guess?

Thanks, gents – very useful to know.

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