Re: GIMP menu items (was: Discussion topics for GU4DEC BoF)

[Sven Neumann <sven gimp org>]

Hi,

Ole Laursen <olau@hardworking.dk> writes:

> There's more to this than just Glade. There's the same problem with
> menu items in some applications. For instance, the Gimp uses the full
> menu path:
> 
>   #: app/gui/image-menu.c:199
>   msgid "/Edit/Clear"
>   msgstr "/Redigér/Ryd"
> 
>   #: app/gui/image-menu.c:204
>   msgid "/Edit/Fill with FG Color"
>   msgstr "/Redigér/Udfyld med fg.-farve"
> 
>   #: app/gui/image-menu.c:209
>   msgid "/Edit/Fill with BG Color"
>   msgstr "/Redigér/Udfyld med bg.-farve"
> 
>   #: app/gui/image-menu.c:214
>   msgid "/Edit/Stroke"
>   msgstr "/Redigér/Bestryg"
> 
> This is a real pain. All the instances of "/Edit/" need to
> synchronized, and the translation for "/Edit/Stroke" and "Stroke"
> can't be reused. And the translations have to obey the syntax so it's
> possible to screw up. I've done that in the past, it's difficult
> avoiding errors with such a large message catalog.

GIMP will notice you on startup if you made obvious mistakes in the
menu path translations.

> Sven, is there any chance this could be fixed? The Danish translator
> would at least be very grateful for that. :-)

I'm not sure if it can be changed without major efforts and I think
that it is important to differentiate between the menu path and other
occurances of the same string.

> Perhaps it is useful for some languages to be able to differentiate
> between menu items and e.g. window titles. Is that the case for anyone
> here?
> 
> But even if that is the case, the "/Edit/" part of the translation
> string should be stripped so that one could simply do
> 
>   #: app/gui/image-menu.c:214
>   msgid "/Edit/Stroke"
>   msgstr "Bestryg"

you should get away with

#: app/gui/image-menu.c:214
msgid "/Edit/Stroke"
msgstr "/Edit/Bestryg"
 
provided you translate the first entry completely, but I'm not sure if
that would help at all (it probably won't).


Salut, Sven