= 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. 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
Nice: no xml/xliff, just plain text word lists for translation.
== NSLocalizedString
/* TBA */ "TBA" = "TBA";
or
/* ContributeVC Feedback */ "Submit" = "Absenden";
which one would you choose?
NSLocalizedString(@"Submit", @"ContributeVC")
== 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
== 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: genstrings_incremental.
== Thank you
for your attention.
* ADC: Programming Resources * ADC: NSShowNonLocalizedStrings & NSShowNonLocalizableStrings
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setBool:YES forKey:@"NSShowNonLocalizedStrings"]; [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setBool:YES forKey:@"NSShowNonLocalizableStrings"];