1373959 - Export strings for v8.0

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for iOS :: Localization, enhancement, P1)

Comment 1

[Stefan Arentz | :st3fan | ⏰ EST | he/him]

Attachment: PR https://github.com/mozilla-l10n/firefoxios-l10n/pull/27

Here is the string export for Firefox iOS 8.0. The export is very noisy because of an Xcode upgrade.

The following sections should be ignored:

Extensions/NotificationService/Info.plist
Telemetry/Info.plist
TelemetryTests/Info.plist

Should we try to remove them from the export? (We have not with other sections in the past)

Comment 2

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

(In reply to Stefan Arentz [:st3fan] from comment #1)
> Extensions/NotificationService/Info.plist
> Telemetry/Info.plist
> TelemetryTests/Info.plist

The update script "translates" them automatically
https://github.com/mozilla-l10n/firefoxios-l10n/pull/27/commits/c7aadef3e227a23dc1a4b6c0779b24ab8536a7b3

The real issue here is the use of plural forms without proper plural forms (bug 1181777).

Comment 3

[Stefan Arentz | :st3fan | ⏰ EST | he/him]

I'm looking at bug 1181777 but I am not sure what we should do or if this is related to those three strings files mentioned in this bug.

Is this blocking for 8.0 and if so, can you give us some guidance on what to do to resolve this?

Comment 4

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Bug 1181777 is about "Support correct localization of plural forms". 

We currently don't have support for proper plurals, and yet here we introduce strings with plurals
https://github.com/mozilla-l10n/firefoxios-l10n/blob/c7aadef3e227a23dc1a4b6c0779b24ab8536a7b3/it/firefox-ios.xliff#L1780-L1795

Even worse: code assumes that 1 vs 1+ works for all locales, using a completely different title if only one tab was received.

Delphine is in charge of mobile, it's her final call and I have no clue of the schedule at this point. If we're exposing strings now, I assume it's a bit too late to think about fixing the plural support.

A proper solution would be to find a message that works without need for plural support.

Comment 5

[Delphine Lebédel]

Good catch, thanks flod. 

Seems like previously we've had to work around this issue by not associating the string to a number, thus avoiding the need to use plural forms:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1289590#c7
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1154088#c10
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1154088#c18

I think the right thing to do at this point would be to file a follow-up bug to fix plural forms for iOS going forwards (as was discussed some time ago in Bug 1154088) - and in the meantime for this time around to work around this issue by changing the strings, making them more generic and eliminating the use of plural forms, as flod suggests.

At this point we're still early in the cycle, so we should still have enough time l10n-wise.

Comment 6

[Delphine Lebédel]

Side note: seems like rnewman wanted to fix plural forms at one point 2 years ago (Bug 1171186).

Bug 1154088 has a few interesting links in the comments too:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Foundation/Reference/NSDateComponentsFormatter_class/index.html#//apple_ref/occ/cl/NSDateComponentsFormatter

"Handling Noun Plurals and Units of Measurement"
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPInternational/LocalizingYourApp/LocalizingYourApp.html

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1154088#c12

Comment 7

[Stefan Arentz | :st3fan | ⏰ EST | he/him]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #4)
> Bug 1181777 is about "Support correct localization of plural forms". 
> 
> We currently don't have support for proper plurals, and yet here we
> introduce strings with plurals
> https://github.com/mozilla-l10n/firefoxios-l10n/blob/
> c7aadef3e227a23dc1a4b6c0779b24ab8536a7b3/it/firefox-ios.xliff#L1780-L1795
> 
> Even worse: code assumes that 1 vs 1+ works for all locales, using a
> completely different title if only one tab was received.

It sounds like we can keep the strings if we fix the code. Can you explain to :jhugman what the code should do? This is new to us, some hints would really be appreciated. Ideally with an example.

Comment 8

[Delphine Lebédel]

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Localization/Localization_and_Plurals should have hints and examples, I believe (not sure if you were looking for something else)

Comment 9

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

(In reply to Stefan Arentz [:st3fan] from comment #7)
> It sounds like we can keep the strings if we fix the code. Can you explain
> to :jhugman what the code should do? This is new to us, some hints would
> really be appreciated. Ideally with an example.

I know very little about iOS development, but the idea is that you create a string that properly supports plural forms.

Take for example this string in Firefox desktop

detailsPane.itemsCountLabel=One item;#1 items

That's the way you create a plural form in that platform. Each form is separated by a 
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Localization/Localization_and_Plurals

English will only have two forms, but Chinese will only have one

detailsPane.itemsCountLabel=#1 個項目

While Slovenian will have four

detailsPane.itemsCountLabel=En predmet;#1 predmeta;#1 predmeti;#1 predmetov

Once again, I don't know the details about 8.0 schedule, but that seems like a scary thing to change at this point. We have no idea how the XLIFF file would look like, if tools properly support it. And don't forget build scripts, since IIRC you're creating .strings files from XLIFF.

That's something we should do at the beginning of a cycle to test, not at the end right before exposing strings.

Comment 10

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Ok; first thing: My apologies for the naïve implementation of pluralizing tabs.

If this were a standalone iOS project, with an iOS centric tool chain, I'd suggest that we go all in with the iOS tool chain: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPInternational/LocalizingYourApp/LocalizingYourApp.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000171i-CH5-SW10 

This is relatively straight forward for iOS devs. I don't, however, know how this integrates with our existing toolchain.

However, this isn't an iOS centric organization, and we have a toolchain that works for all the platforms. 

I suggest we implement PluralForm in swift so iOS can work with the existing l10n toolchain (by adding to it, not changing it).

https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/intl/locale/PluralForm.jsm

From the department-of-famous-last-words this looks relatively easy to implement. 

Proposal: 

1. I could rearrange the errant SentTab strings into PluralForm format, 
1a. String freeeze
2. The iOS team could implement PluralForm.swift
3. Localizers localize the SentTab strings in PluralForm.
4. All in time for 8.0?

Comment 11

[Delphine Lebédel]

FWIW it was planned to start localizing last Friday. At this point I would say we're still on track l10n-wise - but I'm going to need to get strings exposed this week (as early as possible) if we want to make sure to hit the deadline as planned.

What's the time-frame expected for the proposal in comment 10 (ie until we can expose strings)? 

If you think this is going to take longer than a couple days, can we at least export all the other strings while this part is taken care of? Given the amount of translation work, whatever is possible to start out with already would be great. 
Thanks everyone for your help with this!

Comment 12

[Stefan Arentz | :st3fan | ⏰ EST | he/him]

Attachment: PR https://github.com/mozilla-l10n/firefoxios-l10n/pull/28

Updated strings for Firefox iOS. Includes updated strings as discussed in *Bug 1374642 - Remove plural support from SentTab.* strings*

Comment 13

[Delphine Lebédel]

Comment on attachment 8880557 [details] [review]
PR https://github.com/mozilla-l10n/firefoxios-l10n/pull/28

Review Plus'ing here as well, just in case. I'm drafting out email to localizers and will merde once that's done. thanks!