[drMerry]

Hi all,

Just a question about translations.
I had a discussion with another translator about this, and I would like to hear some other opinions.

INTRO
While translating calibre, you will also have to translate the shortcuts
e.g. on a button.

The shortcut is marked with the & character.

Change &cover

means: press c to use the change cover function (in calibre you will see the c is underlined.
/INTRO

So, during translation, you will get problems translating the exact word. E.g. in dutch the translation of cover is omslag. As you can see, no c.

So, what should I do in general, there are 4 options

1. Choose another word
2. Use the same word but don't create a shortcut
3. Use the same word, add an extra character
4. Use the same word but just create another shortcut

In the case &cover it would be:

1. Omslag (voor &calibre)
2. Omslag
3. Omslag &c
4. &Omslag

There is no good other translation for cover containing a c so I added "used in caliber" at the end for 1.

My opinion is, you should use 1 if possible, otherwise 2.
4 would be bad practice in my opinion for 4 reasons:

1. If you are used to shortcuts, you do need the same shortcut in all languages. If d means duplicate in one language and delete in another, you do have a problem (if you disable the warning messages, you will have a big problem).
2. If you get duplicate shortcuts on 1 screen, the shortcut won't work or will have unexpected behavior.
3. If you mange to check all duplicates, and Kovid adds a text that uses the shortcut you chose for a translated item, you do have a problem again.
4. It is (in my opinion) unmanageable, and if the original translator does leave the project, you will have to read all shortcuts to be sure no conflicts are created (not even talking about translators that just pop-in....)

The pro's of using 1, 2 and 3 are:
- Shortcuts stay the same in all languages (when using 2, some shortcuts won't work, but the are not used for another function either).
- When new functions are available, you just have to translate the same shortcut, and you do not have to check if the shortcuts are occupied already (I trust Kovid doing this for the original translation)

The pro for using four would be:
All shortcuts are translated so all functions that do have a shortcut will have one after translating
You do not have to use 'bad' translations (e.g. you can use "&station" and not "&railroad stop" if the original translation requires a &r)

But personally speaking, the cons are much bigger than the pros.
What do you think?