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Re: [PATCH] l10n: de.po: translate "index" as "Index"

From
Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>
Date
Jun 2, 2015, 08:22 UTC
Message-ID
<556D67CC.3000400@drmicha.warpmail.net>
In-Reply-To
<1749852.uCRPrjoCKZ@cs-pc>
Christian Stimming venit, vidit, dixit 01.06.2015 22:00:
Show 39 quoted lines
> Am Montag, 1. Juni 2015, 12:34:31 schrieb Stefan Beller:
>> On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 12:26 PM, Christian Stimming <stimming@tuhh.de> 
> wrote:
>>> "index" concept, my explanation routinely says "This concept is called
>>> 'index' but it has nothing to do with any associations you make with that
>>> word. Better remember this thingy as *** and replace the termin 'index'
>>> with *** every time you read about it." where "***" is my preferred
>>> translation. The facial expressions of the audience regarding "index"
>>> regularly confirm this approach as the better one. I never encountered
>>> anyone who says "Oh, but isn't 'index' a much better term for this than
>>> what you said..."
>>
>> So the *** is cut out here, or do you literally advise to think of a
>> black magic box here?
>> I'd be interested to know your preferred translation, maybe that can
>> be used instead of Staging-Area then?
> 
> Sorry for being unclear here: I left out the concrete word I use because you 
> might need to come up with your own choice in the command-line git 
> translation. The point of this remark is rather that almost any other term is 
> better than leaving "index" as a term as-is. The term that I use is only one 
> among probably many possibilities.
> 
> In case you still want to know my preferred German word, I stick to the 
> translations that are used in git-gui, mostly still proposed by myself in 
> (huh) 2008. http://repo.or.cz/w/git-gui.git/blob/HEAD:/po/glossary/de.po  
> There, "index" isn't used in the user interface anymore but rather "staging 
> area", and that's translated into German as "Bereitstellung". In my experience 
> this term works quite well for a German-speaking developer audience, even 
> though the term with its military background is only seldomly used or known. 
> But the word triggers some well-suited associations: partly "bereit" for the 
> next step, partly "Stellung" as some extra third place in addition to working 
> copy and repository. But that might very well be a different discussion than 
> what you need to discuss for command line git.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Christian
> 

git-gui in German is unusable for any user who knows German and knows the technical terms used in git but not the specific choices the git-gui translator has made. It's a great example of how not to do a translation.

Also, a translation is really the wrong place to "correct" choices made upstream in the main project. There it is index, not staging area (for a good reason).

The purpose of a translation is to make it easier for non-native users to use a tool by translating (parts of) the interface into their language - not to make it more difficult for them to use the other parts.

Michael
Previous: Christian StimmingNext: Ralf Thielow
Message 8 of 12 in “l10n: de.po: translate "index" as "Index"”
  1. l10n: de.po: translate "index" as "Index"Ralf Thielow, May 29, 2015
  2. git@drmicha.warpmail.netJun 1, 2015
  3. phillipJun 1, 2015
  4. Michael J GruberJun 2, 2015
  5. Christian StimmingJun 1, 2015
  6. Stefan BellerJun 1, 2015
  7. Christian StimmingJun 1, 2015
  8. Michael J GruberJun 2, 2015
  9. Ralf ThielowJun 5, 2015
  10. Ralf ThielowJun 2, 2015
  11. l10n: de.po: translate "index" as "Index"Ralf Thielow, Jun 5, 2015
  12. l10n: de.po: translate "index" as "Index"Ralf Thielow, Jun 12, 2015

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