Re: Translations of folder names - two proposals

[danilo gnome org (Danilo Šegan)]

Hi Jan,

Today at 19:35, Jan Morén wrote:

> Hmm. So I would have a file selector that is lying to me? I would do "ls
> ~", and see "Desktop", then use gedit to open a file and "Desktop" would
> be nowhere to be found (replaced by "Skrivbord" or "机", depending on
> what language I use that day)?

I see one problem with this: how do you find any of the applications
in Gnome menu when you switch languages?  Well, at least some
applications and all preferences are going to get completely new
"names".

The catch here is that you're assuming that folders are directories
on disk, and you've already wrapped your mind around it.  You're not
accepting that it may be "folder with my desktop stuff", no matter
what it says.  It's even more clear with "Documents": it's a "folder
which holds my documents".  It's not a path on the disk (that's an
implementation detail), it's just a place in hierarchy with some
descriptive notes on it.

Why shouldn't this be translated?

Before answering that, please try not to think about folders as
directories on disk, but rather, as a real-world "folders".  When you
think of names as always being possible to translate, you won't have
problems wrapping your mind around "Desktop", "Skrivbord" or "Радна
површ" being the same thing, provided you understand all the languages
in question.

It seems to me to be only about prejudices and what we're used to.

> I don't expect ncftp to default to the "desktop" for its downloads; as a
> matter of fact, I don't expect _anything_ except Nautilus to care about
> "Desktop" at all. "Desktop" is Nautilus' playground only. In fact, if
> anything dumps stuff onto my desktop without me doing so (ie. without
> the implicit help of Nautilus) I would be very cross.

That defeats the purpose of the desktop as a place to work on.

You pretty much don't want to use your desktop.  You probably expect
all applications to default to your $HOME.  If it was so, you don't
actually need the desktop, so I suggest setting your desktop to be
$HOME itself, and you'll finally find some use for the desktop :)

If you don't want $HOME to be shown on your desktop, but still don't
use your desktop, then you're better off not using Nautilus for
drawing the desktop (you'll shorten load time, and save some memory).

Cheers,
Danilo