Closed Bug 31947 Opened 25 years ago Closed 23 years ago

make referring string localizable

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Internationalization, enhancement, P3)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Internationalization
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 70842

People

(Reporter: jaagup.irve, Assigned: nhottanscp)

References

Details

(Keywords: l12y)

This is sort of an international usage issue. Currently Mozilla uses "[author] wrote:" when replying to messages. I propose it to be changed into "[author]:" Currently localized strings are exposed internationally i.e. "Karl Ove Hufthammer kirjutas:"/"Irve skreiv:"/etc. On newsgroups, for example, it can be quite annoying. By omitting "wrote" we achieve localized versions that no longer produce this kind of confusion. "Jaagup Irve:" is internationally understood regardless of the language pack used.
Reassigned to ftang.
Assignee: rchen → ftang
Component: Localization → Internationalization
Would it be terrible to keep on using this workaround? i.e. not translating "wrote" into another language? Some language version has used the English word "wrote" so far and these users are used to it. Others may opt not to use the word at all -- apparently this was done for Estonian?
kat - if this is a bug you've reproduced, pls change the status for unconfirmed to new. Thanks
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
people being used to "%s wrote:" is HMHO just an exmple of their adaptiveness... i really do not think the "wrote" would be a thing that we would miss. it is not likely that this change would cause misunderstandings. of course, this referring string could be linked with individual identities and be customizeable via UI. for example, my foreign identity could keep "&s wrote:" and estonian one could use "%s kirjutas:", but coding this would be much more complex thing.
FYI. For Communicator 4.x, we considered this very same question for Japanese and decided against translating it because quite a few users would send messages not only to Japanese users but also to English speaking users. Yes, people are used to it but the real reason is that we didn't want to use Japanese word for "wrote" in English messages. In most cases English recipients will not be able to display that phrase due to lack of fonts. For CJK, I think it would be better to keep the English wording wihch can be displayed with just an ASCII font. That is why we should have a choice not to translate it for different languages.
nhotta- can you lead the effort of this issue? Can you discuss this with momoi and mailnews folks and ask for consideration.
Assignee: ftang → nhotta
If the sender has a pretty name in non English that will be used even if we do not use the localized string. Should E-mail address be used instead if the no translation option is selected?
To clarify my suggestion, I think we should keep it like: "%s wrote:" And if a localizer wants to translate "wrote", he/she can do so. Some languages may not want it translated, and yet some others may choose to turn that into: "%s: ". This is what I meant when I said that we probably should keep the current workaround. In other words, I think this is something loalizers should handle case-by-case. irve@hot.ee, is there a reason why you in Estonian, you choose not use "%s: " rather than "%s wrote:"? In Japanese, we might continue to use "%s wrote:". In either of tehse cases, the user will have to do something about pretty names if he/she does not want to send it as is. So, the pretty name issue is not relevant to this decision in my opnion.
Currently "wrote" is hard coded (nsMsgCompose.cpp). The string has to be moved to resource file. Reassign to ducarroz. 1212 if (NS_SUCCEEDED(rv)) 1213 { 1214 if (GetReplyOnTop() == 1) 1215 mCitePrefix.AppendWithConversion("<br><br>"); 1216 1217 mCitePrefix.Append(author); 1218 mCitePrefix.AppendWithConversion(" wrote:<br><html>"); 1219 }
Assignee: nhotta → ducarroz
Summary: different referring string → make referring string localizable
actually, using hardcoded "wrote:" _is_ better than letting localizers to adjust the string, otherwise we will get a lot of incomprehensible translations in international postings. but using just ":" gives less fuss in non-international newsgroups/mail and it is more aesthetical than some foreign phrase when posting locally. others do not want to see "kirjutas:" and we don't want to see "wrote:", simple as that > In either of these cases, the user will have to do something > about pretty names if he/she does not want to send it as is. this affects non-latin using languages I suppose.
I think it would be better to keep "wrote:" in Japanese rather than simply ":". In some cases, you will see an unrecognizable pretty name + ":". It is much easier to understand that this is a sender's name when you see the phrase ".... wrote:". As long as we still have the pretty name problem unresolved, I vote for either keeping the status quo or extracting the "wrote" into a localizable string. This gives maximum flexibility. You can also opt to translate this string as an empty string, in which you case you will get "%s: ", or leave it as "%s wrote:", or translate it. Let the localizers make their own decisions about this since the requirements for different languages are different. All we need to do is to write a note about it enough to let localizers know what they they need to take into account. I vote for extracting it out with a warning to localizers.
I agree with Irve, but I guess it's OK if it's turned into a localizable string too.
I agree with Irve, but I guess it's OK if it's just turned into a localizable string too. I have one idea, though. When posting to newsgroup, could we have a feature where use of localized or international "headers" could be deceided based on the newsgroup name? E.g. posting to no.* groups would use localized Norwegian 'Frå' instead of 'From' and 'Emne' instead of 'Subject', while posting to other newsgroup would use the English ones.
Accepting
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Target Milestone: --- → M20
I would like the possibility to define this string MYSELF via templates + variables, e.g.: "On %date%, %name% wrote:"
The newsreader Xnews (which by the way passes all MUSTs all SHOULDs in the GNKSA) makes it possible to choose different referring strings for different newsgroups (e.g. no.*).
Keywords: mozilla1.2
Keywords: intl
QA contact to ji.
QA Contact: momoi → ji
Keywords: intl → l12y
Keywords: nsBranch
Blocks: 99230
cleaning up nsbranch keywords.
Keywords: nsbranch → nsbranch-
Target Milestone: --- → mozilla0.9.6
No longer blocks: 99230
futured.
Target Milestone: mozilla0.9.6 → Future
Blocks: 107067
Keywords: nsbranch-
Reassign, I am working on this as bug 70842.
Assignee: ducarroz → nhotta
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
Target Milestone: Future → ---
Patch in bug 70842 moves the reply header strings to preference so they are editable. Mark this as a dup of bug 70842. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 70842 ***
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Product: MailNews → Core
Product: Core → MailNews Core
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.