i18n: translating the glossary

Wagner Bruna wagner.bruna+mercurial at gmail.com
Tue Jun 22 18:42:16 CDT 2010


Hello,

The new glossary text is shown like this:

  Update
    (Noun) Another synonym of changeset.

    Example:  "I've pushed an update".

    (Verb) This term is usually used to describe updating
    the state of the working directory to that of a
    specific changeset. See "hg help update".

    Example: "You should update".

  Working directory
    See 'Directory, working'.

and such. For a couple of reasons a direct translation won't work
well; in Portuguese, for instance:

- the translation of "Working directory parent" already starts with
"parent", so there's no purpose for that redirection;

- a noun translation is (almost?) always different from the
corresponding verb;

- the topic ordering would look pretty random;

Also, since the translation paragraph split it became awkward to add,
remove or reorder paragraphs (not that I'm complaining about that
change ;-) ), limiting somewhat what can be done by the translators.

Since there isn't much time before the release, I propose to translate
it like following, at least for now (I'll mark translated text with <>
to avoid bothering you with Portuguese words; unmarked text stays in
English):

  Update
    <(Noun) Some synonyms / possible translations. Translation
    of the original text.>

    <Example translation, possibly more examples>

    <(Verb) Some synonyms / possible translations. Translation
    of the original text.>

    <Example translation, possibly more examples>

  Working directory <(some synonyms / possible translations)>
    <See> 'Directory, working'.


Explaining the English terms would actually be more useful than a
simple direct translation, since many translated word choices are not
obvious, and some words (like command names) can't be translated.

What do you think?

Regards,
Wagner



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