Proposal for Standard.catalog

[Minuous]

In the same way as AISS provides standardized
toolbar imagery, a Standard.catalog could provide
standardized translations for common strings; eg.
the standard menus and menu items listed in the
official Style Guide ("Project", "New", "Open...",
etc.). This would save translators the hassle of
retranslating those strings over and over, less
possibility of mistakes, catalog files would be
shorter, etc.

Such an idea makes more sense if it has broad
adoption. I would be interested to hear the thoughts of the
community on this proposal.

[amigakit]

Hi

I can certainly see the sense in this proposal.

[krashan]

Two disadvantages:

1. It increases memory consumption, in usual case many (if not most) strings from standard.catalog will be unused.

2. Complicates code a bit, as application will open two catalogs instead of one (plus error handling). The programmer should also make a distinction between strings coming from application catalog and standard.catalog.

Considering that in my opinion only 5 to 10 percent of strings in an app are standard, and also most of languages have some established dictionaries of these standard expressions, there is little gain in such catalog.

[kolla]

This exists already, just use the catalogs provided by the OS.

[itix]

This exists already, just use the catalogs provided by the OS.

That is not good practise since those catalogs may get renamed, changed or removed.

[kolla]

That is not good practise since those catalogs may get renamed, changed or removed.

:laughing: By whom? Cloanto? Hahahahaha :rofl:

[itix]

:laughing: By whom? Cloanto? Hahahahaha :rofl:

Maybe. Besides, catalogs only work on certain specific OS version. 2.1 and 3.0/3.1 may have different strings than 3.5 and 3.9 and catalogs are completely different (catalog names and IDs) in MorphOS and AROS, very likely in OS4 too.

[Thomas]

Also if a standard catalog exists for a certain language but not a translation for the program, you may be faced with a mixture of translated and English strings. This might be more confusing than helpful for the user.

[itix]

Also if a standard catalog exists for a certain language but not a translation for the program, you may be faced with a mixture of translated and English strings. This might be more confusing than helpful for the user.

There could be online database for some standard strings found in applications and catalog editors could suggest translation from this database. This process could be even automatized if standard identifier is used, e.g. MSG_MENU_PROJECT or such.