Re: www.gnome.org

[Petr Kovar <pmkovar gnome org>]

Hi!

Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>, Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:15:07 +0000:

(...)

> Very true.  Unfortunately, of course, its easier to 'hide' poor  
> quality code, than to hide poor quality translations.
> 
> If something on the user's screen is badly- or wrongly-translated, or  
> a translation is missing altogether, the user will notice almost  
> immediately, and the perceived quality of the software is instantly  
> reduced.
> 
> On the other hand, if the software runs 10% slower than it could  
> because it's poorly written, or leaks some memory every now and again,  
> most users probably won't even notice.

I agree, only that equivalent of a (say, really) bad or wrong translation is
rather a program crash, loss of data, security issue, and so on, than some
memory leaking or a poor program performance. In other words, an issue
preventing a user from adequately making use of the program.

There can be also found non-critical issues in software l10n such as an
unsatisfactory stylistic revision of the text, slightly bad wording,
small typo, etc. Users may notice these issues, but in most cases, I assume,
they don't mind much (especially when the text is not very exposed).

Best,
Petr Kovar