~~SLIDESHOW~~

= Lost in Translation ?

现在什么？_ _ _ هناك التطبيق لذلك!

//Goal: Translating an App should not involve development, existing translations should be kept.//

Problems, Tools, Best Practices.

== Problems

**conflicting** goals:

# not in focus of english speaking developer/tester
# Apple tools are a bit odd, e.g. [[http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/genstrings.1.html|genstrings]] (not incremental)
# xibs even worse to keep up-to-date
# OMG: images!
# hard to verify: fringe screens, bilingual devs

== Interlude: Localisation != Translation

# Localisation: **prepare for** translation (''NSLocalizedString'', **dev** task)
# Translation: **do** translation (''Localizable.strings'', **non-dev** task)
== Not in focus of english speaking developer/tester

# most apps + devs english => no goal,
# annoying ''NSLocalizedString(@"foo", @"bar)'' when **developing**,
# but: expensive to hunt down when **releasing**,
  # hard to find automatically - many **technical** strings
  # ''NSLocalizedString'' & friends mandatory to leverage ''genstrings''

== So,

# make a habit to wrap **every** ''@"english text"'' in ''NSLocalizedString(@"english text", @"view hint")'' whenever you meet one,
# don't even bother about defining a mnemonic key but use just the **english** literal/format string.
# (mnemonic: 2x the typing plus clueless translators)

== Apple tools are a bit odd

IMO there's no way around ''genstrings'', despite it's shortcomings:

# doesn't **update** but overwrite,
# UTF-16 - not (git) diff friendly,
# macro ''NSLocalizedString'' doesn't tell source file.

=== Solution to 1 + 2

''[[https://bitbucket.org/xomodigital/watson/src/64d366c95cdf1fc8f7c09ac6ae13082667363cc7/tools/genstrings_incremental?at=release/foko2013|genstrings_incremental]]''

------------------

Nice: no xml/xliff, just plain text word lists for translation.

== NSLocalizedString

<code objc>/* TBA */
"TBA" = "TBA";</code>
 
or

<code objc>/* ContributeVC
   Feedback */
"Submit" = "Absenden";</code>

which one would you choose?

<code objc>NSLocalizedString(@"Submit", @"ContributeVC")</code>

== Xcode project target membership

* we're not doing it 100% how Xcode likes it,
* reason: define translations per target, **not** whole project
* caution: keep ''Localizable.strings'' in sensible directory

{{:iphone:localise_xcode_navigator.png|Project Navigator}}
{{:iphone:localise_xcode_properties.png|File Properties}}

== tl;dr

# **no literals** in xibs, inject text via ''IBOutlet'',
# prefer **rendered text**, avoid images,
# wrap **every** user visible string **whenever** you find one,
# always localise the **format string**,
# always **preserve** existing, used translated phrases: ''[[https://bitbucket.org/xomodigital/watson/src/64d366c95cdf1fc8f7c09ac6ae13082667363cc7/tools/genstrings_incremental?at=release/foko2013|genstrings_incremental]]''.

== Thank you

for your attention.

* [[https://developer.apple.com/internationalization/#resources|ADC: Programming Resources]]
* [[https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/LoadingResources/Strings/Strings.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000051i-CH6-96996|ADC: NSShowNonLocalizedStrings & NSShowNonLocalizableStrings]]
<code objc>[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setBool:YES forKey:@"NSShowNonLocalizedStrings"];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setBool:YES forKey:@"NSShowNonLocalizableStrings"];
</code>
* ''[[https://bitbucket.org/xomodigital/watson/src/64d366c95cdf1fc8f7c09ac6ae13082667363cc7/tools/genstrings_incremental?at=release/foko2013|genstrings_incremental]]''
* [[https://docs.google.com/a/xomodigital.com/document/d/15QdUmJBy-PJbTM-0nm9gvyIKi9Hty9U_GpoY9x9pdF4/view|Google docs]]