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Tabs in menu "Settings" too wide in german language

Started by Spike, November 02, 2009, 02:22:43 PM

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Spike

Simutrans 102.2 from Sourceforge.

In german language setting, the row of tabs in the "Einstellungen" menu is too wide, and the rightmost tab "Kosten " is dangling half off the window.

Isaac Eiland-Hall


Spike

No, stupid translator tool, where people cannot see the effect of their changes on the games UI.

The stable version was supposed to go on a big german computer magazines cover CD. I feel such mistakes to be shameful, even if not very serious in regard to the functionality - but people who see such will say "Bleh, how careless those developers are. Cannot even get the UI elements fit into the window. How can that slip through?".

I've reported such problems several times on the german forum.

This is also the reason why I boycott the translator for my own projects. Only if texts are checked in the game after editing, one can see if it fits. Putting texts into some web UI does not give the real push to test, it seems.

Sorry. It's something small, but I feel ashamed each time I see this in new Simutrans versions - admitted I had also made mistakes in the UI texts in old versions, but I can report countless other mistakes in current german and english translations, too, so this report is only proxy for a big number of similars, and I would have assumed that after so many years of work, german and english translations should be very good.

Even if I now put the right (or better) texts in the translator, someone can override them with not-so-well-working texts again tomorrow. That's why I don't do this. I think each language needs one, exactly one, person who enters and checks all texts. The community approach that is used here doesn't work.

I've told so in the german forum before, but since many people here cannot read that, I tell it here again. Maybe a bit drastic, but it's an ongoing problem since years, and annoys me each time I test a new Simutrans version, since it seemingly, and despite complaints, and despite an easy solution, it does not better.


Isaac Eiland-Hall

I apologize - I was making a silly joke because I always felt the untranslated error message I referenced gave Simutrans a bit of charm. It was sort of a little easter egg, except not very hidden. But I definitely see your point.

On the other hand, I think most people think it's much less severe of a problem - which doesn't mean I think we shouldn't fix, only I think it means I hope you don't feel so much shame. I understand displeasure at something that's unpolished, though.

Maybe this can become part of the discussion of the reorganization of some parts of the community; maybe we can figure out a better solution -- having one person in *charge* of the translation for a language wouldn't be a bad idea at all, in my opinion. Just like you need a person in charge of a pak; I think it would be helpful to have a master translator for each language.

Spike

I've added a few more reports, this time for the English translation. Just to illustrate what kind of problems there are.

The biggest problem is that the translator does not show the lines in context, and people therefore cannot easily check their input for consitency with other lines in the same window.

I'd like that at least the main menu and the climate menu are in a good shape, since those two are the first real game menus which a new player sees.

vilvoh

Eh, may seem pretty obvious but why don't you request an account in simutranslator and modifiy those texts by yourself? On the other hand, I think there aren't many active translator for english texts. People usually tend to conform with master translations, which sometimes doesn't fit but they're in english.

I was wondering if we could implement some kind of preview mode or allow developers who upload texts to set up the max size and the amount of space the text takes.

Escala Real...a blog about Simutrans in Spanish...

Spike

Quote from: vilvoh on November 02, 2009, 03:04:44 PM
Eh, may seem pretty obvious but why don't you request an account in simutranslator and modifiy those texts by yourself?

Because of this:

Quote from: Hajo on November 02, 2009, 02:40:22 PM
Even if I now put the right (or better) texts in the translator, someone can override them with not-so-well-working texts again tomorrow. That's why I don't do this.

I think Frank gave me an account, but since anyone can override any other persons texts it doesn't make sense to me. E.g. if I shorten a text which is too long, someone else might think is better in full length, and overrides my correction with another correction that works less well in the game.

Dwachs

@Hajo: I would like to move your threads here to the Translator-related board if you agree. Imho all the remaining reports are bug reports for the English/German translation.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and maggikraut.

Spike

Yes, that is a good idea. (I didn't know that there is a board for the translations, sorry).