Re: Best way to format a name string in Folks

[Gil Forcada <gforcada gnome org>]

El dg 05 de 08 de 2012 a les 00:55 -0400, en/na Chris Leonard va
escriure:
> On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 9:34 AM, Gabor Kelemen <kelemeng gnome hu> wrote:
> > Hi Laurent
> >
> > 2012-08-04 10:18 keltezéssel, Contzen Laurent írta:
> >
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> I'm currently adding a new display-name property in FolksIndividual as
> >> discussed in bug #651672
> >> (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=651672). One of the possible
> >> values we'd like to set this value to would use the given_name and the
> >> family_name of the contact. Currently, I'm simply doing
> >>
> >>      var name = structured_name.given_name + " "
> >> + structured_name.family_name;
> >>
> >> which outputs a string containing exactly "$given_name $family_name".
> >>
> >> Is this the best way of doing this or should, for example, the string
> >> format be translatable?
> >>
> >
> > This should be translatable.
> >
> > For example, the standard name order in Hungarian is $family_name
> > $given_name, so your solution would not work for my language and for a few
> > more, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_order#Name_order
> >
> > Probably "%s %s" with a comment about their meaning and how to switch the
> > order is enough, like:
> >
> > Translators: first %s is the given name of the contact, the second %s is the
> > family name. To change the order, use "%2$s %1$s"
> 
> I think if you are going to use variable names as Gabor suggests, I
> would go beyond using the simplest string name token "%s".  With mor
> ethan one such token in a translatable string is less than ideal,
> 
> I would suggest something like
> 
> %(givenname)s %(familityname)s.

That's only possible on python or other languages isn't it? Seems Folks
is using vala, so maybe is also possible to use something like this :)

> Yes, it is true that this will inevitably result in some printf errors
> when localizers mistakenly translate what is inside the parenthesis,
> but these are easy to catch (pofilter printf flag) and easier to fix
> (just change the variable name back to English).  I'm not convinced
> that this format will result in any more errors than using the
> simplest tokens and expecting localizers to add the proper numbering
> as suggested by Gabor.
> 
> My own point of view on this is that I find it frustrating when
> developers to ask a localizer to do a job that the glibc locale should
> be capable of addressing all on it's own.  Translating Day and Month
> names should be banned in PO files :-)

I would say then that instead of complaining afterwards about more
translation work from our side, we should try to keep educating
developers about the wonders of glibc locale :) Filling bugs would be
the first step and provide patches the second one ;)

Cheers,

> There is in fact an entire section in glibc locales called LC_NAME in
> the glibc locale that has a field for Name format (name_fmt) as
> described below.  My argument is that develoeprs should leverage the
> information content of the glibc locale to the greatest extent
> possible, that is after all the primary purpose of having glibc locale
> files.
> 
> cjl
> Sugar Labs Translation Team Coordinator
> 
> From Claude Paroz's excellent Locale Helper web-app
> 
> http://lh.2xlibre.net/values/name_fmt/
> 
> LC_NAME
> 
>  Name format (name_fmt)
> 
> Define the appropriate representation of a person’s name and title.
> The operand consists of a string, and can contain any combination of
> characters and field descriptors. In addition, the string can contain
> field descriptors defined below.
> 
> %f
>     Family names.
> %F
>     Family names in uppercase.
> %g
>     First given name.
> %G
>     First given initial.
> %l
>     First given name with latin letters. In some cultures, eg on
> Taiwan it is customary to also have a first name written with Latin
> letters, although the rest of the name is written in another script.
> %o
>     Other shorter name, eg. "Bill".
> %m
>     Additional given names.
> %M
>     Initials for additional given names.
> %p
>     Profession.
> %s
>     Salutation, such as "Doctor"
> %S
>     Abbreviated salutation, such as "Mr." or "Dr."
> %d
>     Salutation, using the FDCC-sets conventions, with 1 for the
> name_gen, 2 for name_mr, 3 for name_mrs, 4 for name_miss, 5 for
> name_ms.
> %t
>     If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty string,
> then the empty string, else a .
> 
> Each field descriptor may have an after the <%> to specify that the
> information is taken from a Romanized version string of the entity. An
> initial is any string, normally consisting of one letter and a
> punctuation mark; the Dutch "IJ" is an example of a two character
> initial.
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-i18n mailing list
> gnome-i18n gnome org
> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-i18n


-- 
Gil Forcada

[ca] guifi.net - una xarxa lliure que no para de créixer
[en] guifi.net - a non-stopping free network
bloc: http://gil.badall.net
planet: http://planet.guifi.net