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<title>Translation steps</title>
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<H3>Translation guidelines</H3>
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<p>Traditionally, it is hard to translate
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strings dealing with database technologies. We will first try to
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outline the difficulties of translation, before proposing writing and
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translating guidelines. If you are translating pgAdmin3, skip
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directly to Translating guidelines at the bottom of the page.
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<H3>Translation problems</H3>
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<p>Structured Query Language (SQL) is
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based on the English language. SQL queries cannot be translated into
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another language. For example, "SELECT * FROM table_foo WHERE
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clause;" will not be translated.
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<p>Sometimes, the border between the SQL
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language and the English language is not obvious, because SQL was
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designed to be close as possible to natural language. For example,
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there are three possible translations for "Create View"
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into French, depending on the context: "Crer vue"
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or "Create View" or "Crer Vue".
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<p>The difficulty for the user is to keep
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in mind the correspondence between English and translated words. In
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our example "View" is translated into "Vue",
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which is an easy correspondence (called "translation pair"
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afterwards). But with dozens of translation pairs like
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"Trigger/D�clencheur", "Row/Ligne",
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"Column/Colonne", you need to keep in mind many variations
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and turn yourself into a translator, which was not the aim of the
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<p>In some languages, translation of SQL
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keywords and database objects do not exist yet, because the community
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of users is not large enough to define a language consensus. In such
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cases, translators try to innovate, creating translated words which
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enrich vocabulary but do not clarify the software interface. The
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problem is that other translators may not be aware of the new
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vocabulary, trying to impose their own translation choices.
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<p>As a result, translations lack
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consistency, users have difficulties to find the corresponding SQL
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keywords to write their queries and finally ... turn to the English
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version of the software.
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<p>Also, we should keep in mind that
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English has very few grammar rules compared to other European
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languages, which have complex cases (feminine/neutral/masculine) and
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derivation (nominative, accusative, dative, etc...). Non-European
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languages sometimes do not have verbs, adjectives and others
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aggregate nouns. This causes many translation problems when
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programmers try to build sentences like "Create a new %s"
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to handle cases like "Create a new View", "Create a
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new Table", etc... Let's study this example in more detail:
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a new %s" is translated into French by "Crer
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nouveau/nouvelle %s" to handle feminine/masculine cases, which
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is not very obvious. In German, "%s" will not be replaced
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safely by a noun, because it must be derivated in accusative case.
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In several European languages, the replacement of "%s" by
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aggregative languages will not express the two words "new %s"
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separately but will join them, either writing "%snew" or
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"new%s" in a single noun, with derivation and cases.
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Hungarian is an example where "%s" constructions will
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<li><p>Also, in non-European languages,
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adjectives like "new" or verbs like "create" may
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not exist and be expressed by a suffix or a prefix. In such cases,
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translating "Create a new %s" is simply impossible.
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<p>When you start translating pgAdmin3,
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PhpPgAdmin3 or PostgreSQL into your mother tongue, you will soon
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notice this kind of problem. The only solution is to define writing
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and translation guidelines and to stick to them.
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<H3>Writing guidelines</H3>
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<p>We propose a very simple solution
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based on the idea that a developer/writer should always try to make a
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clear difference between SQL keywords and natural language. If
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possible, SQL keywords and database objects should be written in
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capital letters. For example, "Create a new view" should be
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written "Create a new VIEW".
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<p>Avoid the use of "%s" unless
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the replaced sting is invariable, like it is the case for a product
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name,a username, a password, etc... As such, "Successfully
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connected to host: %s" and "User %s was disconnected"
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<p>Never write a string like "Create
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a new %s" for the reasons explained previously. You should write
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"Create a new VIEW", "Create a new TABLE",
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"Create a new INDEX", etc...
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<H3>Translating guidelines</H3>
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<p>Never translate SQL keywords written
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in upper-case letters for the reasons explained before. In some cases
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you might even break pgAdmin3 if you do!
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<p>Stick as much as possible to words
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which are close to the original SQL syntax. For example, in French,
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you may use "vue" for "view", because both words
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start with the letter "v". Do not choose distant words,
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like "d�clencheur" for "trigger", because
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entry-level users may not be able to make a good use of the SQL
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syntax ... and ultimately switch to the English version. Sometimes
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it's better to simply leave these keywords untranslated, instead of
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creating a fancy word nobody will recognize.
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<p>Please take special care about
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including all %s and %d variable placeholders correctly. If you make
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a typo error, the application might crash. On rare occasions, it
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might be necessary to reorder placeholders. In the following
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(fictive) example, both parameter positions are exchanged: "Server
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%s user %s is logged in." could be translated by "L'utilisateur
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%2$s est connect au serveur %1$s.". At the moment,
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pgAdmin3 does not require any reorder placehorders, but it might
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change in the future. Just be aware of it!
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<p>Keyboard shortcuts are denoted by a
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leading "&". For example "&Add", which is
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translated into French by "&Ajouter", can be triggered
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from keyboard using Alt + A. Be careful when changing letters, to
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avoid keyboard entry conflicts within one menu. If you deviate from
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the original shortcut keys, pgAdmin3 users might have problems
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remembering shortcuts in both English and translated pgAdmin3
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versions. Therefore, be careful creating new shortcuts if you cannot
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choose the same letter.</p>
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<p>Menu strings also contain hard coded
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shortcuts (Ctrl-X) or function keys (F5). These can be identified by
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a preceding \t (tab). If appropriate, the modifier key name may be
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translated (Ctrl-), but the key combination must remain the same in
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any case, because the behaviour is coded in pgAdmin3 source.</p>
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<p>Most forms are not designed with
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resizing capabilities, because this is quite hard work. The only
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resizing forms are the function, view and rule property windows.
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Therefore, you may need to shrink the translated text to the English
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size. In general, we tried to leave enough space for translation
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texts, but if you believe there are certain places we should spend
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more space please let us know.</p>
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