[wp-polyglots] Translation blues!

[Huda Toriq]

On 9/7/07, एस्.के <skichu at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1. When I try to update the legacy .po file using Poedit with the
> latest version of .pot file after an upgrade, it removes all the
> strings that are unique to my theme which are not finding place in the
> official .pot file. It is a pain to note down the changed strings and
> do the update in a work around to keep my labour in tact!!

You should separate the core code localization with those for themes
and plugins. Use the textdomain to do this. For theme i18n, add
load_theme_textdomain('themedomain') function to your theme file.
Substitue 'themedomain' with any text. Use the same text as the second
parameter in each theme's __() and _e(), e.g. __('Text to be
localized', 'themedomain');
Place the .mo containing your theme i18n strings in your theme dir.

K2 theme [1] is a good example for i18n theme.

> 2. Different themes use different text strings to denote even generic
> items like "comments", which is substituted by the term, "Responses"
> by some theme writers. There is no uniformity in this matter. So I
> have to add it to the pot file and then translate it.
>
> 3. Another problem is that many theme authors do not gettext all the
> translatable strings, forcing me to search for those in the theme
> template files and hack them.

> This applies to plugins too.
>
> Can some standardization be introduced into these aspects, so that
> l10n becomes a breeze!

I think term variation is okay, letting everyone express something in
their own way, right? The more important thing is to make i18n as a
standard for plugin and theme writer.

I think it'd be great if there is a WP i18n central, where developer
writer post their i18n plugin and theme, asking help for everyone to
translate their plugin/theme. I think translators would be happy to
help. And developer will be glad if their plugins/themes are available
in many language. And finally, it helps non-english speaking users!

-- 
Huda Toriq
http://hudatoriq.web.id/