On Dec 12, 2005, at 10:05 AM, Marc Lavallée wrote:
Le 12 Décembre 2005 03:52, Andre Schmidt a écrit :
if we make the gui (with the _VERY_ simple english) to multilangual, wouldnt we need to translate the objects too ?
No. The effort is about software localization, not translation of a programming language.
Translating the objects would require PD to support dialects, like AppleScript did. It would be impractical, because PD's language is graphical and not using a natural language metaphor.
Since Apple is based in the U.S. (THE unilinguistic power), I was not surprised when it dropped support for dialects in AppleScript,
although it was working perfectly (I used it for a while). The reason invoked was
that most developers were not using this feature, but it doesn't mean it
was a completely bad idea...
Maybe the stereotype of the U.S. is unilinguistic, but I know that the
cash machine prompts me to choose between 6 languages, and the ballot
is available in 14 languages, and in typical day, I hear and see
english, spanish, chinese, and arabic, among other languages. Contrary
to popular belief, English is not the "official" language everywhere in
this country. And the law in a number of states requires that people
be given government info in their language, as well as saying that
contracts that are not in a shared language of the involved parties are
not valid.
Just my two bits.
.hc
Menu items like "File", "New", "Open", and GUI objects like "messages", "number", "symbol" and "comment" are easy to translate. Non-gui objects must be named, and most have distinct names or are diminutives, so it
would be a bad idea to translate them. Even in English, most object names
must be decoded, like "osc~"; those names are not in English, they are in the
PD dialect.and i think multilangual gives more problems to ALL, than the user learning a little simple english...
Localization is common and considered a *good* thing.
ALL can also learn or remember a little bit of their own language to
use computers; it's part of the solution to keep and enhance our local cultures. Since I'm French speaking, I prefer "commentaire" to
"comment", "symbole" to "symbol", "nombre" to "number", "bascule" to "toggle"...Using "little simple english" with technology is not enough to deal
with complex concepts, and it is an insult to our cultural intelligences. English is a rich language, but it's not mine...so leave the gui (and objects) in english and just make multilanguage help files, tutorials etc...
PD can be localized, like any other software. It's not a problem, and
it's the first step to multilingual documentation.but then again, as long as theres english version, i dont really care
:)PD will alway support its "lingua franca", don't worry.
ps. my mother language is finnish, and i was unable to use a finnish language os...
That's sad. I visited Finland, and most people were using their computers in
Finnish. Welcome to the 21th century.I read the other comments about this sensible subject; of course, some
would prefer to have support for some new "super-duper" features, and
consider this language issue irrelevent. The good news is that PD is a free
software and therefore open to people that would like to use it in their own language.Mathieu, we want DesireData! (and a better name...) -- Marc
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