[Adium-devl] Watching a first time Adium user for 5 minutes

[Peter Hosey]

(off-list)

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On Jan 28, 2007, at 09:25:46, Evan Schoenberg wrote:
> On Jan 28, 2007, at 12:14 PM, Andreas Monitzer wrote:
>
>>
>>> Mm?  String comparisons are done in a bunch of places... but how is
>>> strcmp(message, "INVALID_PASSWORD") == 0
>>> any different than
>>> strcmp(message, "Invalid Password") == 0
>>
>> Well, if somebody changed the English translation to "Wrong
>> Password", the second comparison would fail, while the first one
>> would still work.
>
> At present, we don't use translations at all.
>
> The "English translation" is the same as no translation at all --  
> all userworld strings are the English form, marked for translation  
> and so translated into other localizations if appropriate.
>
>>> The problem was that a new string had been added and we didn't
>>> notice.  Specifically, the AIM service now distinguishes between
>>> "Invalid screenname" and "Invalid password" whereas previously
>>> there was a single message, "Invalid nickname or password".
>>
>> Well, this is another issue that already delayed 1.0 for a few
>> months. Development version of libgaim were merged into Adium without
>> checking the changes that were done to it, which caused a lot of
>> regressions, which had to be traced back to libgaim.
> Moving from libgaim 1.x to libgaim 2.x necessitated a lot of  
> changes... but it was not a matter of not checking changes which  
> were done but rather a matter of needing to make appropriate  
> changes.  We were a large part of the development of libgaim 2.x --  
> gaim's biggest beta tester, in fact.  It could be argued that in  
> the future we should only upgrade to released versions rather tan  
> being part of the dynamic changes of a developing library... that's  
> a discussion for another day, as there are definitely pros and cons.
>
>>> If any part of the string changed, the localization would need to
>>> be updated.  "Foo %x" != "Foo %x  bar"... so if we had "Foo %x" =
>>> "THIS_IS_FOO_IDENTIFIER–%x" as the translation, that translation
>>> would no longer be used if the underlying string changed to "Foo %x
>>> bar". We'd need to update the translation.
>>
>> Well, I assumed that the libgaim-devs don't change the localization
>> keys willy-nilly. However, I don't have any experience with the
>> working style of the libgaim devs.
> Generally, strings don't change.  My point is just that having an  
> "Adium localization" via gettext doesn't change anything besides  
> the parsing out of substituted strings... it isn't somehow a  
> magical cure for keeping up to date with library changes.
>
>>> Part of the problem with such a split is that since the Gaim core
>>> supports plugins which could do anything, including providing
>>> additional protocols, you can't have a centralized singlee list of
>>> possible messages.  There's just so much text passed from protocol
>>> to core to UI... it'll be a huge undertaking to find a way to do
>>> that in a non-UI (identifiers rather than text) fashion.
>>
>> Ok, that's a problem. The issue is that libgaim might not contain all
>> localizations Adium offers. I know a few people here that would be in
>> a great panic if their german Adium would suddenly pop up an english
>> message (since they wouldn't understand it).
> Well, right now there are quite a few messages which come up in  
> English regardless of what localization Adium is running in,  
> precisely because they come from libgaim, we don't use libgaim's  
> translations, and we don't have explicit handling of the message in  
> Adium.
>
> Gaim is translated into 61 languages... I'm fairly sure they aren't  
> all 100% translations, but I don't envision there being a situation  
> in which Adium is translated into a language Gaim is not.
>
> -Evan
>
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___________________________________
\ Peter Hosey / boredzo at adiumx.com
PGP public key ID: C6550423 (since 2007-01-01)


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