Translation testing with x-test

[David Edmundson]

Just had a thought when making a checklist for plasma applets, we
should probably check translations.
Not the translation itself, simply that all strings are going through
i18n() calls, and the source has the correct Messages.sh to extract
these messages.
It's quite easy to make a mistake in your code to not include the
correct translation catalogue, or to extract the strings to a file
that is never loaded. Given most developers develop and test in
English no-one notices till after release. In KDE Telepathy we made a
_lot_ of mistakes with regards to translation.

The good news is that it's really easy to test, /if/ you have the right set up.

All strings in KDE are automatically translated into a "language"
called x-test, this simply prepends and appends every i18n'd message
with "xx"
http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tools#Internationalization_.28i18n.29_Tools

If you ever see a message without these "xx" wrappers you know
something is wrong.

Unfortunately this is quite tricky to set up:
http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Localization/Building_KDE's_l10n_Module

and no distribution in their right mind will ever package x-test, so
it has to be fetched and installed locally.

Would it be worth:
 - making this part of the testing check-list for an application
(especially the new apps + applets)
 - asking distros to package l10n-x-test. Kubuntu could do it solely
in project-neon perhaps.

David