[kde-doc-english]kspread (?)

[Pam R]

On Tuesday 07 May 2002 8:21 am, Malcolm Hunter wrote:
> On Tuesday 07 May 2002 08:01, Éric Bischoff wrote:
> > Hi all (and especially Malcolm),
> >
> > Some translators complain about :
> > > Or if you had a spreadsheet that modelled the greenhouse effect
> > > accurately you could perhaps see the effect of a 50 percent reduction
> > > in the amount of hot air emitted by the world's leading politicians.
> >
> > "hot air" is terribly idiomatic. We cannot say "air chaud" in French to
> > describe speaking too much. It would work in German ("heisse Luft"), but
> > I'm afraid it has no counterpart in languages of the latin family, and I
> > would not be surprised if it were untranslatable in slavic languages,
> > Asian languages, etc as well.
> >
> > Besides that, we have no idea of what a "greenhouse effect" is.
>
> It's to do with global warming. The build up of greenhouse gases (carbon
> dioxide, methane, etc.)
>
> > Can someone fix that? Could we also please ban completly all puns,
> > idiomatisms and jokes once for all ?
>
> I've changed it to:
> "Or if you had a spreadsheet that modelled the greenhouse effect accurately
> you could perhaps see the effect of a 50 percent reduction in the amount of
> methane."
>
Dear Mr. Hunter

It is now about an hour since I read your email and I am still angry.

To make such a change in the original english version of a document without 
any attempt to consult the author is both rude and arrogant. 

It might be excused if the document were no longer being actively maintained, 
but that is obviously not the case as I updated it in cvs less than 24 hours 
before you made your change.

It might also be excused if the matter were extremely urgent, needing a reply 
in less than a day, but given the release schedule for Koffice that is not 
the case here.

In passing, and just to be nasty <insert suitable smiley here> perhaps I 
should mention that the new version:
".. the effect of a 50 percent reduction in the amount of methane."
does not make complete sense. What methane? Where? Produced by what?

Also, you have put an unneccessary space between 'methane.' and </para> into 
cvs.

Pam