Hi to all, some time ago we launched the TDE Weblate Translation Workspace - TWTW. The first step was integration for translating applications. This seems to be successful. That's why I'm preparing the second step - integration for translating desktop-style files. Integration to translate desktop style files required several things that had to be prepared in advance. Now everything seems ready. However, before we move forward, I need some things to discuss with you: --1. What is suitable for translating? Gettext since version 0.19 includes support for desktop style files. This is great so we can easily create and update POT files. By default, for desktop files the keywords are: Name, GenericName, Comment, Icon and Keywords. For our needs we add Description, ExtraNames and X-TDE-Submenu. Although the keyword list seems reasonable, I have doubts about "Icon". The icon name is often the same as the application name. This could result in the icon name being translated inadvertently. What is your opinion? --2. How to structure translation templates? If you worked in TWTW, you probably know that the translations here are structured into two levels - project => component. Where the component corresponds to one particular translation template. We used the projects for the basic division - dependencies, main modules (individual projects), libraries, applications. The question is how to generate POT templates for desktop file translations? Here are some fundamentally different options: a) Create a separate POT template for each desktop file => advantage - it will be very clear, disadvantage - there will be many new components. However, each with a small number of strings. b) Incorporate desktop files translations as part of existing POT templates for individual components (applications) => advantage - there will be only a few new components, disadvantage - there will be less clarity, this may prevent correct translation of the strings in the desktop file if the same string in another context is used inside the application. c) Merge templates of multiple desktop files into one common template => advantage - no too many new components arise, disadvantages same as for b) with higher risk of collision of identical strings with different context. --3. How to structure components for desktop file translations? If there will be a separate templates for translating desktop files, then there are two possible ways to integrate them into TWTW: a) Add as additional components to existing projects => advantages - translations will be close to the applications to which they belong, disadvantages - the number of components in projects will increase. b) Create a separate project for all desktop file translations => advantages - no increase in the number of components in existing projects, disadvantages - some TWTW checks will not be able to be applied because the application and its desktop files will be different projects. --4. How to organize translation files in source git repositories? Currently, the organizing of the translation files is inconsistent. Therefore, it seems appropriate to harmonize the layout of directories with translations. Here are a few of the variations used: + po/<lang>.po + po/<lang>/<app>.po + translations/<lang>/<app>.po + translations/<lang>/messages/<app>.po For desktop file translations, all languages are required to be located in the same directory, named in accordance with the language. For example: + po/desktops/<desktop-name>.pot + po/desktops/<desktop-name>/<lang>.po Do you prefer the directory name "po" or "translations"? In this directory, it seems to me a good breakdown by purpose - "messages", "desktops", because this will allow in the future to add "docs", "manpages". The structure could look like this: po/desktops/abakus.desktop.pot po/desktops/abakus.desktop/<lang>.po po/messages/abakus.pot po/messages/abakus/<lang>.po What is your opinion? --Thank you for reading to the end! As a reward, here's a link to a real demonstration of creating desktop files translated using PO files: https://mirror.git.trinitydesktop.org/gitea/TDE/abakus/pulls/3 Cheers -- Slávek
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