Re: "New" problems in Evolution

[Gudmund Areskoug <fta algonet se>]

Hi,

Christian Rose wrote:

> mån 2003-10-20 klockan 10.17 skrev Gudmund Areskoug:
> 
>>>>And what's worse is that even a context system wouldn't really solve the
>>>>Evolution problem, because the fundamental problem is that there is only
>>>>one "New" menu entry.
> 
> [...]
> 
>>This "New" problem will probably not be the last that needs special 
>>care. Switching from "New" to some other expression, like e. g. 
>>"Create" would probably only break consistency and move the problem 
>>on to some other languages.
>>
>>Is it possible to solve this kind of problem well without a 
>>"linguistically aware" system, like gettext seems to be evolving into?
>>
>>Perhaps this simplified example how it may perhaps be done (g for 
>>gender) could be a step on the way, before breaking out simplified 
>>languages rules into separate files:
>>
>>E. g. in po:
>>msgid
>>"New"
>>msgstr [g1]
>>"Ny"
>>msgstr [g2]
>>"Nytt"
> 
> 
> I must admit I'm not sure what you're proposing. Are you proposing that
> the label of the "New" button dynamically changes based on what object
> is to be created?

yes, but now I see I'm probably talking straight past the problem, 
since whaat I propose would only work for cases where you know in 
advance what following menu entry "New" gets coupled with.

> How would that work?

Sorry, I don't know enough about the inner workings of gettext or 
the various programs, but I thought it should work pretty much the 
same way as plural forms.

I can't help getting a feeling that this kind of problem often 
happens when an action is described with something other than a verb 
or normal verb equivalent in menues and buttons. I've seen that 
discussion many times before in various forms, but particularly the 
"New" discussion. And it keeps coming back.

Here, it looks like "New" actually means "Create new...".

Like I said, it was Monday morning... :-/.

BR,
Gudmund