Re: [PATCH 03/21] i18n: advice: internationalize message for conflicts

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 18, 2016, 21:31 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqd1ojqciz.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <573CD7EC.9060606@sapo.pt>

Vasco Almeida <vascomalmeida@sapo.pt> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

>>> +       else
>>> +               error(_("%s is not possible because you have unmerged files."),
>>> +                       me);
>> 
>> Despite the commit message, I still don't understand this change. 'me'
>> is a literal git command which shouldn't be translated, so how is this
>> helping?
>> 
> I saw it as an operation that could be translated, not necessary a git
> command

The intention of who wrote this message was to tell this to the user:

    Running the command '$X' is not possible in this situation.

implying "Don't type '$X' again; it is futile. Correct the unmerged status first".

Our subcommand names are English verbs, because they are designed to be easily understandable by English speakers, so we do not exactly say "Running the command 'commit'" in the message. Instead we say "commit is not possible..." for brevity.

Languages, if their grammatical rules do not allow a subcommand name in the place in a straight-translation of that original sentence, are allowed to (and encouraged to) translate the original "%s is not possible" as if it were "Running the command '%s' is not possible". That is what good translaters would do anyway.

So for this (and 05/21 for the same reasons), I do not think we want to split and duplicate the messages.