% human-markdown-renderer: heading-base=2 Hey all, I found something outdated/incorrect on the zh_CN l10n guide, and have a proposed update at https://repo.anthonos.org/misc/l10n/zh_CN_l10n.pdf. The current unoffical version for the update is 1.2p2. Newer patch-versions of 1.2 may appear as I found something missing/inaccurate (e.g. I think I should include some info on [Translate Toolkit] and suggest CJK parentheses in GUI apps). It is released in LibreOffice's [Hybrid PDF] format, and should be quite easy to edit. What's New ========== This proposed version of zh_CN l10n guide is re-typed in LibreOffice (since I don't have the original OpenOffice ODT), and therefore is largely rephrased and restructured. Due to my note-adding habit, there are also lots of footnotes. I chopped off some tables (e.g. strftime(3) formats), since they are largely irrelevant and could be maned easily, and I don't want people to keep looking at a short and simple introductory guide for reference. Some naive workarounds for typeface problems are removed, while keeping some backwards compatibility. Some of them are explained in Chinese as [Questions on L10n Guide 1.1], and for English speakers here is an abstract for the *Questions*： Whitespace Between CJK Chars and Western Text --------------------------------------------- In the 1.1 version of the guide, it's suggested to use a format like ‘中 文English 英文’ in CLI apps, which is said to be a workaround for *rendering issues*. The issue, as described, is some metrics problem in the terminal emulator and the typeface (which can't hardly be seen in modern distros), and it's silly to pollute normal users' eyes to meet misconfigured users' needs, and people that are happy to misconfigure their terminal emulators may not even be able to tell them. It's interesting that OpenOffice's auto CJK spacing does make adding spaces after 中文 silly, and makes the strategy look quite well in the PDF. But your terminal emulator is not \*Office. Whitespace Before/After Western Parentheses ------------------------------------------- In the 1.1 version, It's said:
The `()` parentheses in English source text should not be altered,
because the CJK Paretheses are ugly and space-wasting. [...] For parentheses and full-width quotes (that means curly quotes), spaces should not be added. It would be weird not to add spaces before and after western parentheses(like this)which is quite awful, unless you are coding. Space-wasting? Even in English people add whitespaces, or you will be reading crap. And the ugliness of CJK Paretheses is history with the current default typeface settings. For users that are weird enough to use fonts like SimSun for UI, well, they asked for it. Other Metrics/Whitespace Issues ------------------------------- The popular metrics problem in monospace fonts concerning differences on GB standards and Western text habits is explained partially for curly quotes and ellipsis. It's not suggested to use those in Metrics-aware environments like CLI after all. BAD NEWS: In old CJK monospace fonts, even [box-drawing glyphs are Full-Width] (i.e. 1em). File editing assists -------------------- I suggested some modern editing tools like Virtaal, OmegaT, POedit and Emacs PO-Mode. Letting editors do the work for human is more optimal. Additional notes on Terminology files are also included in the new version. Other Changes ------------- * It's nonsence to say emdashes should not be used, since normal CJK.. Same story. * Links to other guidelines in zh_CN for further reading, including TranslationHouse's general guide, M$ Style Guide and another style guide on GitHub which is quite popular among this generation of zh_CN-speaking designers. * No more escapes in inline example text as translators are expected to use specialized editors. For those who use normal text editors, a set of escape rules is included. Links & Bibs ============ [Translate Toolkit]:http://toolkit.translatehouse.org/ [Hybrid PDF]:https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/HowTo/CreateAHybridPDF [Questions on L10n Guide 1.1]:https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/i18n-zh/um2WvigjDQE [box-drawing glyphs are Full-Width]:https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka/issues/16 -- Regards, Arthur2e5 (0x222D7BDA)
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature