Localised directory names using the .directory files

[Martin Böhm]

Thank you for your comments.

Even now, there is a folder in my directory that is called Desktop/,
which doesn't mean anything in my language. I can't say that is the
best solution :o) The current one is the best for the English folks
out there, but not everyone speaks fluent English.
In KDE 3 there were links for folders like "Storage Media" which also
never existed in the directory structure, yet people didn't complain
much. Same with "Trash" - actually, it's called .Trash. but the link
is properly translated within KDE3.

In KDE4 Dolphin, there is a Root/ link in the sidebar, yet that
doesn't point to the /root directory, but to "/".

The above three cases prove that there are objects in the desktop
environment that pose as folders, but aren't real directories.

Bear in mind that any other application can use the same standard to
detect the name, if the application wants to. After all, it's just the
approved freedesktop.org standard. Also, command-line users tend to
know their English better (and still, the applications can view
translated files or the distributors might decide not to ship the
.directory entries).

Renaming the directories might be a trouble. If there is no better
solution, we can always use a simple condition (display the translated
name only if the original name is same to the .directory Name=).

You are right, Mark, that we can eliminate several of the use cases I
mentioned earlier by translating the Desktop/ directory and all the
xdg-user-dirs during their installation. However, there are still some
folders ( /media, /tmp or perhaps /home ) that cannot be adapted to
the user's locale. You also don't consider if the user wants to change
his language (but okay, that cannot be very common).

Don't forget that we don't discuss using Name= in .directory files,
the KDE distributors have to decide whether it is useful or not. That
is to be decided by the distributions. Basically, my suggestion just
follows the desktop entry standard.

Martin

2007/7/8, Mark Rose <kde at markrose.ca>:
> On Saturday 07 July 2007 4:46:51 pm Peter Penz wrote:
> > Hi Martin,
> >
> > On Saturday 07 July 2007 15:26:21 Martin Böhm wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> > > There is a minor issue concerning duplicate directory names (if the
> > > Music/ directory is "translated" as Musik/ and the user creates a new
> > > Musik/ directory himself). I don't see a big problem with that, as the
> > > user knows he created a second directory (and I can't see a user case
> > > where the user would want to do that).
> >
> > I see it as a major problem when having two folder icons named "Musik"
> > inside one view. No matter whether the user did this on purpose or not: as
> > soon as this case occurs, the user has a problem.
> >
> > More important is the answer to the question what should happen when the
> > user renames a folder. Should the name property of the .directory entry be
> > renamed or the name of the folder? Now combined with the above use case
> > when having a folder named "Music" showing "Musik" (because of the
> > .directory entry) and having a second folder named "Musik" (without a
> > .directory entry), then the outcome of renaming a folder is
> > unpredictable...
>
> Indeed. There would be even more confusion accessing folders outside of KDE.
> If a user runs a non QT application or uses the command line, he won't find
> his "Musik" folder but "Music" instead. The words are similar enough there,
> but what about other folders with completely different names?
>
> The best bet is to name a folder with i18n to begin with, and to store that
> name.
>
> --Mark
>