371951 - AMO localization framework doesn't account for declinations

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Public Pages, defect)

Description

[Wladimir Palant]

Looking at the extensions main page in Russian. Right now it says "Обзор Extensions по категориям" and "Популярные Extensions" - the word "Extensions" hasn't been translated in the database yet. The problem that this "Extensions" is $type['Translation']['description']['string'] in both cases (see /app/views/addons/browse_categories.thtml) but the correct replacement would be "расширений" in the first string and "расширения" in the second one. Unlike in English, Russian nouns have more forms than just singular and plural. Marking "major" since I suspect that this is a general problem.

Comment 1

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Neither gettext nor our homebrewed dynamic l10n support declinations properly.  For translating these strings, we have to rely on localizers interpreting the context appropriately and adjusting their translation where they can (in the .po).

If the .po tweaks can't fix clashing noun forms, we can leave the nouns out (eg. instead of the title reading "Browse Extensions" it just reads "Browse") - again, this is a .po fix.  It's a compromise, but that's not unfamiliar territory for us.

Comment 2

[Wladimir Palant]

That's rather bad. Looking at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=369224#c16, the current Russian translation will replace "Extensions" by "Расширения". This is the wrong form for "Browse Extensions by Category" translation, furthermore having the word capitalized is wrong here and in "Popular Extensions" (though it is correct for the sidebar). I will post a suggestion to reformulate this translation in bug 369224, it should solve the issue at least here (not the capitalization however).

Comment 3

[Fred Wenzel [:wenzel]]

I don't want to sound pessimist, but this is a bug unsolvable by us. Even if we introduce some sort of declination awareness in our dynamic localization, static localizations (as the one mentioned by you above) are done through gettext which does also not support it.

I therefore think we have to be more specific about what AMO can do to facilitate localization while avoiding the declination issue.

Should I close this, then?

Comment 4

[Wladimir Palant]

WONTFIX I guess...

Comment 5

[Fred Wenzel [:wenzel]]

This would be a case for "CANTFIX", rather ;)

Rest assured that we consider it equally as painful as you do that this problem exists. Thus we are always open for suggestions about how to make the life of the localizers easier. Especially if we made (illegitimate) assumptions somewhere that might hold in the languages we speak but not in other ones.

Comment 6

[Jesper Kristensen]

1: The string "Extensions" (and other strings like it) is static and should be in the .po file, not in the database.

2: The same string is used in a number of different places. This is not an l10n friendly approach. Replace the single string with a number of strings, one for each time it is used.

If you think this solution is acceptable, I will be happy to work on it.