Re: Some questions about placeholders and markers in translations

 Those SHOULD be answered in http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/Localization
but I notice that some are not.


On Sat, 9 Apr 2022 at 22:32, Mathias (GER, Freeciv)
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> today I spent a few hours translating. I found some things that I don't understand e.g. placeholders (%s or %d) and other markers (underscores, round brackets oder questions marks):
>
> – What are these placeholders and markers for?
> – How must they be used in translations?
> – What rules / syntax must be observed?
>
> Maybe someone can explain this to me or tell me where I can find answers. Here are some examples:
>
> - - - - -
>
> Percentage signs
> Examples:
> %s

 %s gets replaced by relevant String.

 There could be "%s makes %s translation", from which then come both
 -> "Mathias makes German translation"
 -> "Marko makes Finnish translation"

> (In some cases, multiple %s are used in one "Language constant")

 I'd call them just the opposite: "Language variables".

> %d

 Number

> %3d

 Number, but always with at least 3 digits -> "002"

> Plague risk: %.1f%%

 Floating point number followed by percent sign (%% -> %)

 You can simply place those same markings to your translation in the
same order than in the English original, but it's also possible to
have them in different order:
http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/Localization#How_to_change_the_order_of_arguments

> %1
> %2 etc.

 While these look like C parameters above, these are Qt's (with which
Qt-client and ruledit have been made) own string handling stuff. The
number just indicates the order or arguments.

> Underscores
> Examples:
> _Mines
> U_nload All From Transporter

 In some guis, the character following the underscore is a mnemonic
(i.e. if these are in the menu, you can quickly access "Unload" by
pressing 'n') Otherwise the underscore is not shown to user.

> Round brackets
> Example:
> (unknown city)

 No special meaning. Probably used in a place where normally would be
a city name, but for some reason we cannot show it now.

> Question marks and asterisks
> Examples:
> ?redundant:*
> ?Merchant:M
> ?timeout:eta
> ?style:European

Those are qualified strings:
http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/Localization#How_to_handle_qualified_translatable_strings

> "Language constant" without blank spaces
> Examples:
> RequiresBridge
> PreventsOtherRoads
> CanIrrigate
> CanRoad

 At least all your examples are names of some flags in the ruleset
format (if a road type has RequiresBridge flag, it cannot be built on
river tile without knowing Bridge Building). Usually these are not
shown to users (so translation is not a high priority), but there are
theoretical cases where some custom ruleset could cause them to appear
in help.


 - ML