1437583 - Split improper plural forms for Delete/Add bookmarks in separate strings

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, enhancement, P2)

Description

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/b9f1a4ecba48b2d8c686669e32d109c40e927b48/browser/components/places/content/controller.js#623-631

cmd.deletePages.label=Delete Page;Delete Pages
cmd.deletePages.accesskey=D
cmd.bookmarkPages.label=Bookmark Page;Bookmark Pages
cmd.bookmarkPages.accesskey=B

These should not be plural forms. Plural forms need to display the number explicitly in the string, and they shouldn't be used for a "1 vs many" situation.

Think for example of locales like Arabic, with 6 plural forms. They only make sense if the number if displayed in the string.

Comment 1

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

I'm not sure what the proposed solution for these strings would be since they seem to make a reasonable amount of sense to me in the English form, but I would like to point out that L10n can currently insert the numbers if they want/need to, e.g.

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/b9f1a4ecba48b2d8c686669e32d109c40e927b48/browser/components/places/PlacesUIUtils.jsm#244

Unfortunately that's not documented in the .properties file.

Comment 2

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #1)
> I'm not sure what the proposed solution for these strings would be since
> they seem to make a reasonable amount of sense to me in the English form,
> but I would like to point out that L10n can currently insert the numbers if
> they want/need to, e.g.
> 
> https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/
> b9f1a4ecba48b2d8c686669e32d109c40e927b48/browser/components/places/
> PlacesUIUtils.jsm#244

Interesting, I completely missed that. Still, bug 1196395 seems to make a call about not displaying such number in the UI (for English), and I think it's worth giving all languages that chance, even if it means multiplying the strings for translation.

So, there are two issues here, from a localization point of view:

1) (minor) The shared accesskey. That's safe-ish, since the label is going to be very similar, but far from intuitive from a localizer point of view. Each string should have its own accesskey. That's also what's going to happen with Fluent, since accesskeys are an attribute of a message.

2) The "fake" plural. Consider for example how this string was translate in Sorbian

Bok lašowaś;Boka lašowaś;Boki lašowaś;Boki lašowaś

That's likely wrong, because without the number the declinations don't make a lot of sense.

Czech likely translated it correctly, with 2nd and 3rd form identical

Smazat stránku;Smazat stránky;Smazat stránky

As said, it would be solved by adding the number, but I think it makes sense to split them instead in 2 separate strings, with their accesskeys.

Comment 3

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Attachment: Bug 1437583 - Split plural forms for Delete/Add bookmarks in separate strings

Since the number of tabs is not actually displayed, having two separate strings from 1 vs many is preferable.

Review commit: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/219550/diff/#index_header
See other reviews: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/219550/

Comment 4

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Comment on attachment 8950298 [details]
Bug 1437583 - Split plural forms for Delete/Add bookmarks in separate strings

Pike, what do you think, also based on comments about adding the number to l10n files?

Given that we know some translations are wrong, I prefer this approach.

Comment 5

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Comment on attachment 8950298 [details]
Bug 1437583 - Split plural forms for Delete/Add bookmarks in separate strings

lgtm.

Comment 6

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

These strings were added in bug 1196395, with Philipp doing the UX.

Philipp? What's your take on showing the number of deleted pages/bookmarks, in particular for languages where the plural form depends on delicate things like "it's 3 or 6".

The assertion is that all languages have a grammatical form for "can't count these", so this is really about the UX, not our technical ability to implement it.

Comment 7

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

(Clearing r? in the meantime)

Comment 8

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

To give more context on the NI: these strings ("Delete Page", "Delete Pages", "Bookmark Page", "Bookmark Pages") are displayed in the context menu of items in Library->History

Comment 9

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Comment on attachment 8950298 [details]
Bug 1437583 - Split plural forms for Delete/Add bookmarks in separate strings

Review request updated; see interdiff: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/219550/diff/1-2/

Comment 10

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

@Pike
Just had a quick chat on Vidyo with Michelle about this bug for UX.

She says that it's OK for languages to display the number in these commands. If needed, even for English. So, we could just add a localization note and keep the existing code/strings.

Having said that, I believe that the proposed approach (separate strings) is cleaner, and would get rid of completely wrong translations that are already in tree. Thoughts?

Comment 11

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

I favor separating the two out, too.

Comment 12

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Comment on attachment 8950298 [details]
Bug 1437583 - Split plural forms for Delete/Add bookmarks in separate strings

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/219550/#review227396

Looks good, thanks.

Comment 13

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/a13152330b64
Split plural forms for Delete/Add bookmarks in separate strings r=standard8

Comment 14

[Stefan Hindli [:stefan_hindli]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a13152330b64