[wp-polyglots] Unicode characters instead of entities in POT

[Xavier Borderie]

> I think that symbols like » shouldn't be into the translation
> chains. If the coder want's to draw with the text, that shouldn't be
> translateable.
>
> I mean, instead of this PHP code:
>   <?php _e('Login &raquo;'); ?>
>
> It should be like this:
>   <?php _e('Login'); ?> &raquo;
>
> This way, the translators don't have to translate "Login &raquo;", but
> "Login".
>
> There are cases when raquo should be inside the translatable string?

Well, Right-To-Left languages, I think, would rather translate 'Login
&raquo;' to '&laquo; nigoL', right?

Ok, doesn't seem to be the case here:
http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-i18n/ar/tags/2.3.1/messages/ar.po
#: wp-admin/link-manager.php:95
msgid "Update &raquo;"
msgstr "تحديث &raquo;"

...nor here:
http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-i18n/he_IL/tags/2.7.1/messages/he_IL.po
#: wp-content/plugins/akismet/akismet.php:143
msgid "Update options &raquo;"
msgstr "לשמור &raquo;"

...or even here:
http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-i18n/fa_IR/tags/2.7/messages/fa_IR.po
# H:\Maz-Web\Portal\wp-group\wp\src\wordpress/wp-content/plugins/akismet/akismet.php:128
#: wp-content/plugins/akismet/akismet.php:143
msgid "Update options &raquo;"
msgstr "به‌روزرسانی گزینه‌ها &raquo;"

...which overall seems weird to me. Wouldn't it make sense for these
examples to start with &laquo; instead of ending with &raquo;?
Something like this? Could an arabic translator give his opinion?
#: wp-admin/link-manager.php:95
msgid "Update &raquo;"
msgstr "&laquo; تحديث"

Do translators even know about $text_direction?
http://boren.nu/archives/2007/01/07/rtl-support-in-wordpress-21/
Wouldn't that information/suggestion fit into
http://codex.wordpress.org/Translating_WordPress#Types_of_messages ?

I might have missed earlier discussions on the subject, of course...


-- 
Xavier Borderie