From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,699cc914522aa7c4 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII Path: g2news2.google.com!news4.google.com!news.glorb.com!newspeer1.se.telia.net!se.telia.net!masternews.telia.net.!newsb.telia.net.POSTED!not-for-mail From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn?= Persson Subject: Re: Wasteful internationalization Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <51p83bF1k9di7U1@mid.individual.net> User-Agent: KNode/0.10.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8Bit Message-ID: <3fSth.30294$E02.12318@newsb.telia.net> Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:48:15 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 83.250.96.174 X-Complaints-To: abuse@telia.com X-Trace: newsb.telia.net 1169682495 83.250.96.174 (Thu, 25 Jan 2007 00:48:15 CET) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 00:48:15 CET Organization: Telia Internet Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:8523 Date: 2007-01-24T23:48:15+00:00 List-Id: Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote: > As for renaming buttons and translating compiler messages, it is so > obvious that there is no any need to explain why this idea is evil. It's not obvious. I could of course try guessing what bad experiences you've had with button texts and compiler messages, but I don't think I should. > Even in entertainment industry, it is sometimes quite problematic. I > remember some quest games, virtually impossible to go through in localized > versions. Translated songs in a musical film, presented by local > third-rate interpreters, this can ruin any masterpiece. > > It is always amusing to read Russian manuals written outside Russia. > Unfortunately due to universality of this argument (about wastefulness), I > cannot present any examples a non-Russian reader could understand... (:-)) You're saying translation as such is a bad idea because the translated texts are of poor quality. That's an incorrect conclusion. If translations are bad it's because the translators aren't good enough at what they do. I don't know about Russian translators but good Swedish translators do exist. Of course there are examples of bad translations, particularly user manuals for electronic consumer devices, but there are plenty of very good translations too. > BTW, it is not that funny in some cases. I saw many safety devices, people > of good intentions tried to localize...with almost life threatening > effect... For safety devices it is vital that the users understand the instructions. They'll understand best if the instructions are in their own language. Of course the translation must be correct, which means the translator must be competent. Letting some random bloke from the street do the job is just as bad as hiring some random bloke from the street to write safety-critical software. -- Bj�rn Persson PGP key A88682FD omb jor ers @sv ge. r o.b n.p son eri nu