mirror of
https://github.com/dashpay/dash.git
synced 2024-12-27 21:12:48 +01:00
110 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
110 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
Translation Strings Policy
|
|
===========================
|
|
|
|
This document provides guidelines for internationalization of the Dash Core software.
|
|
|
|
How to translate?
|
|
------------------
|
|
|
|
To mark a message as translatable
|
|
|
|
- In GUI source code (under `src/qt`): use `tr("...")`
|
|
|
|
- In non-GUI source code (under `src`): use `_("...")`
|
|
|
|
No internationalization is used for e.g. developer scripts outside `src`.
|
|
|
|
Strings to be translated
|
|
-------------------------
|
|
|
|
On a high level, these strings are to be translated:
|
|
|
|
- GUI strings, anything that appears in a dialog or window
|
|
|
|
- Command-line option documentation
|
|
|
|
### GUI strings
|
|
|
|
Anything that appears to the user in the GUI is to be translated. This includes labels, menu items, button texts, tooltips and window titles.
|
|
This includes messages passed to the GUI through the UI interface through `InitMessage`, `ThreadSafeMessageBox` or `ShowProgress`.
|
|
|
|
### Command-line options
|
|
|
|
Documentation for the command line options in the output of `--help` should be translated as well.
|
|
|
|
Make sure that default values do not end up in the string, but use string formatting like `strprintf(_("Threshold for disconnecting misbehaving peers (default: %u)"), 100)`. Putting default values in strings has led to accidental translations in the past, and forces the string to be retranslated every time the value changes.
|
|
|
|
Do not translate messages that are only shown to developers, such as those that only appear when `--help-debug` is used.
|
|
|
|
General recommendations
|
|
------------------------
|
|
|
|
### Avoid unnecessary translation strings
|
|
|
|
Try not to burden translators with translating messages that are e.g. slight variations of other messages.
|
|
In the GUI, avoid the use of text where an icon or symbol will do.
|
|
Make sure that placeholder texts in forms don't end up in the list of strings to be translated (use `<string notr="true">`).
|
|
|
|
### Make translated strings understandable
|
|
|
|
Try to write translation strings in an understandable way, for both the user and the translator. Avoid overly technical or detailed messages
|
|
|
|
### Do not translate internal errors
|
|
|
|
Do not translate internal errors, or log messages, or messages that appear on the RPC interface. If an error is to be shown to the user,
|
|
use a translatable generic message, then log the detailed message to the log. E.g. "A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details".
|
|
This helps troubleshooting; if the error is the same for everyone, the likelihood is increased that it can be found using a search engine.
|
|
|
|
### Avoid fragments
|
|
|
|
Avoid dividing up a message into fragments. Translators see every string separately, so may misunderstand the context if the messages are not self-contained.
|
|
|
|
### Avoid HTML in translation strings
|
|
|
|
There have been difficulties with use of HTML in translation strings; translators should not be able to accidentally affect the formatting of messages.
|
|
This may sometimes be at conflict with the recommendation in the previous section.
|
|
|
|
### Plurals
|
|
|
|
Plurals can be complex in some languages. A quote from the gettext documentation:
|
|
|
|
In Polish we use e.g. plik (file) this way:
|
|
1 plik,
|
|
2,3,4 pliki,
|
|
5-21 pliko'w,
|
|
22-24 pliki,
|
|
25-31 pliko'w
|
|
and so on
|
|
|
|
In Qt code use tr's third argument for optional plurality. For example:
|
|
|
|
tr("%n hour(s)","",secs/HOUR_IN_SECONDS);
|
|
tr("%n day(s)","",secs/DAY_IN_SECONDS);
|
|
tr("%n week(s)","",secs/WEEK_IN_SECONDS);
|
|
|
|
This adds `<numerusform>`s to the respective `.ts` file, which can be translated separately depending on the language. In English, this is simply:
|
|
|
|
<message numerus="yes">
|
|
<source>%n active connection(s) to Dash network</source>
|
|
<translation>
|
|
<numerusform>%n active connection to Dash network</numerusform>
|
|
<numerusform>%n active connections to Dash network</numerusform>
|
|
</translation>
|
|
</message>
|
|
|
|
Where it is possible try to avoid embedding numbers into the flow of the string at all. e.g.
|
|
|
|
WARNING: check your network connection, %d blocks received in the last %d hours (%d expected)
|
|
|
|
versus
|
|
|
|
WARNING: check your network connection, less blocks (%d) were received in the last %n hours than expected (%d).
|
|
|
|
The second example reduces the number of pluralized words that translators have to handle from three to one, at no cost to comprehensibility of the sentence.
|
|
|
|
### String freezes
|
|
|
|
During a string freeze (often before a major release), no translation strings are to be added, modified or removed.
|
|
|
|
This can be checked by executing `make translate` in the `src` directory, then verifying that `bitcoin_en.ts` remains unchanged.
|