Question about translating
Added by J A over 6 years ago
Hi! I'm a Gnome/Ubuntu-translator, and I've almost finished off the updated translation to Swedish (sv) for exiv2, using the original POT-file from the trunk as a basis.
However, I'm a bit unsure on to which extent to translate some text. "Everything" is translated now, but I guess some texts in the translation
points to properties etc. and shouldn't be translated. Or? Really unsure.
Examples:
***msgid "An identifier for the publication in which the scientificName was originally established under the rules of the associated nomenclaturalCode.
Are scientificName and nomenclaturalCode refering to properties, or should they be read and translated as "scientific name" and so on? (In Swedish that would be "vetenskapliga namnet" and "nomenklaturkod"
***msgid "A tag for Exif users to write keywords or comments on the image besides those in <ImageDescription>, and without the character code limitations of the <ImageDescription> tag."
Should fields in <> generally be translated?
***msgid "Notes or comments about the spatial description determination, explaining assumptions made in addition or opposition to the those formalized in the method referred to in georeferenceProtocol."
Should georeferenceProtocol be translated? Is it a tag/property? I don't see any other references to it in the text.
..and much more examples, but let's start with these.
I've attached the first version of the translation here, although it's not finished 100% (not reviewed by fellow translator and myself yet:) ) should anyone want to take a look and help me out.
| default.po (761 KB) default.po |
Replies (8)
RE: Question about translating - Added by Alan Pater over 6 years ago
Yes, they are all properties:
georeferenceProtocol, nomenclaturalCode, nomenclaturalCode are all from Darwin Core.
ImageDescription appears to be a TIFF Info property.
In my opinion, none of the property names should be translated.
Thank you very much for taking on this task!
RE: Question about translating - Added by Alan Pater over 6 years ago
Regarding the Darwin Core properties, I found a document online with translations into Spanish. There may be others out there, as Darwin Core is an open schema used worldwide.
RE: Question about translating - Added by J A over 6 years ago
Hmm, that makes sense, as the properties themself are a universal standard (and only their descriptions should be translated).
I'm still confused though -
Having a look at what different types of metatags there are in Exiv2 (at http://www.exiv2.org/metadata.html)
and in the POT-file, I draw the conclusion then that none of the property/labels for the metadata tags listed there should be translated?
If so, I'll compare that list with the po-file, and revert my translations for these tags to use the English original.
Thinking about it, It would make sense, as most of the standards doesn't have any official non-English translations (if they had, it would be a different case)
However, Shouldn't they be excluded from being translatable in the POT-file at all from the beginning then?
There's an way of excluding certain strings when creating a POT-file.
That way, it would make much more sense for any translators, lessen confusion, and also it would be much less text to translate.
RE: Question about translating - Added by Alan Pater over 6 years ago
J A, you make a good question. I am fairly new to this project and have just been following previous examples.
You are correct that the labels and descriptions of Exif tags, IPTC datasets and XMP properties COULD be excluded from being translatable, leaving just the exiv2 program commands in the POT-file.
If we did that, would we be removing a feature people are using? I admit ignorance on how people actually access the translated descriptions of the tags. If they don't really see the translations, there is not much point in having them. Or is there?
RE: Question about translating - Added by Alan Pater over 6 years ago
I am looking at the properties for Dublin Core on the website:
http://www.exiv2.org/tags-xmp-dc.htmlThe table has 6 columns: Property Label Value_type Exiv2_type Category Description
Only the Label and the Description are marked for translation in the POT file. The Property itself never gets translated, which makes sense.
Label is the native language label of the Property. I think it is useful if that gets translated. When translated, users see that label in their native language via the command line and via other programs that use exiv2.
Description will be useful in some cases. What I am unsure about is if users can actually see the Description of XMP properties, apart from on the (english only) website. Until we have a way to show those translated Descriptions, perhaps it makes sense keep them from being translated?
RE: Question about translating - Added by J A over 6 years ago
Yes you're right. Had a closer look at some random metadeta definitions, like Exif basic and XMP Basic Schema.
It seems it's the Label and Descriptions that translatable, and not the properties, so I was wrong in my earlier assumptions.
This thread has still cleared up a lot of confusion for me. I don't mind if you keep the descriptions, as I've already translated them:)
it is/was the Labels for the properties that are the hard part (as there are no official translations available for the terms).
Anyway, I'll clean up the last of my translation, and send it in for review to our Swedish translator community.
Thanks for taking the time to investigate this Alan!
RE: Question about translating - Added by Robin Mills over 6 years ago
I'd like to thank you both for working on this. Thank You, JA. Thank You, Alan.
Alan has only recently joined Team Exiv2 after a few years as a user, forum contributor and the occasional patch. Alan is a great addition to the team because he's not a development engineer. He knows about Metadata and has proven to be a very valuable addition to the team.
In the case of this thread, I could not have given the support that Alan has provided. Thank You, Alan.
RE: Question about translating - Added by J A over 6 years ago
I added the translation to a issue, set it as feature, and hope to see it included soon. Didn't know who to set as an assignee, so I just took Andreas, but please change if this was wrong.