Re: How we should translate Git

> On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 09:47, Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch> wrote:
>> There are German terms for all the untranslated ones, but I rarely
>> hear them in practical usage.  Books probably go for a full
>> translation since they want to be normative (how should I know, it's
>> been a while since I used a German book), but lectures stick to the
>> half-translated version.
>>
>> And much like the average computer scientist around here uses a number
>> of English terms even in German informal speech, I suspect the average
>> German user of git would not translate *every* term.  Unless you are
>> aiming for a normative usage, in which case we would also have to
>> translate the theory (manpages, books) using the same terms...
>>
>> I'll leave it at that for my $0.02, since as you note, I'm not
>> actually the intended audience.
> 
> I'm forking this off from the German thread since I wanted to make a
> more general point about how we translate Git in general.
> 
> Firstly, not to step on anyone's toes. I think that final say on how
> to translate Git has to be left to each language community, some
> languages (like German) simply use more loan words. While others (like
> Icelandic) prefer to translate pretty much anything as a matter of
> course.
> 
> But here's something to keep in mind:
> 
> Unlike the German article on version control we're going to be the
> primary and definite source for Git translations, and given Git's
> popularity probably the definite source for all DVCS translations for
> a given language.
> 
> While translating some things might look awkward now words are usually
> awkward because you aren't familiar with them.
> 
> The translations we come up with are going to be used for a long time,
> DVCS is a relatively new field, and if we do a good job people using
> Git (or other derived systems) in the year 2050 might be using some of
> the terms we come up with, and they'll sound natural to them because
> they're used to them.
> 
> More and more people from all walks of life are using computers, word
> processing used to be a relatively advanced thing 20 years ago, now
> everyone does it.
> 
> Similarly, everyone might be using a DVCS 30 years from now. Small
> children might be "forking" and "branching" on their tablet computers
> as they collaborate on some school project.
> 
> People like that will benefit from a more exhaustive translation into
> their native language, and even people that are bilingual will benefit
> from a good translation.
> 
> I find it very easy to think in either English or Icelandic, but I
> struggle when I have to do both at the same time. I'd guess that
> people who explicitly turn on translations on their computer usually
> want a more complete one than not.