Braces in strings

[Jellby]

I have a string in my plugin which looks like this:

<span %(code)s>@{@</span> and <span %(code)s>@}@</span>

but when I try to translate it in transifex (just replace "and" with "y"), I get this error:

Error: The expression '{@ y @}' is not present in the original phrase.

Why is this happening? there are other strings with literal { and } which are not affected. Is there any way to avoid this (other than moving @{@ and @}@ out of the translatable string)?

[kovidgoyal]

Transifex will be performing checks to ensure that replacement placeholders are not altered, presumably those checks are being confounded by that type of placeholder.

[Jellby]

Transifex support suggested that I could disable placeholder checks, which I can't because I have no management rights, and anyway I don't think I'd want to do that.

But given that in the main calibre file there are other strings with similar content (the eval(template) description, for instance), could you check if there is any difference in the settings between that and the plugin? Maybe they have different source formats or something?

[kovidgoyal]

I haven't customized any placeholder related settings on any of the files either in main calibre or in the plugins.

The problem is simply that the transifex checking code is recognizing

{@</span> and <span %(code)s>@}

as a placeholder. Translations should never alter the content inside placeholders, so it is complaining. I suspect the checking code use a simple regext of something like {\S+.+} to recognize these. The eval() function docstring has a space after the { which is why it doesn't trigger the problems.

If this is the only string where you have a problem simply special case it, make it something like

val = _('<span %(code)s>{}</span> and <span %(code)s>{}</span>').format('@{@', '@}@')

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The eval() function docstring has a space after the { which is why it doesn't trigger the problems.

Yes, that may be.

If this is the only string where you have a problem simply special case it, make it something like

val = _('<span %(code)s>{}</span> and <span %(code)s>{}</span>').format('@{@', '@}@')

That was my plan B, yes. But first I wanted to make sure what happening and why. Thanks.