menu labels and mnemonics, how planned were they?

[Alan Horkan]

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005, Torsten Rahn wrote:

> Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:52:40 +0200
> From: Torsten Rahn <torsten.rahn at credativ.de>
> Reply-To: "Krayon (KImageShop)" <kimageshop at kde.org>
> To: "Krayon (KImageShop)" <kimageshop at kde.org>
> Subject: Re: menu labels and mnemonics, how planned were they?
>
> Am Dienstag, 12. Juli 2005 21:28 schrieb Boudewijn Rempt:
> > On Tuesday 12 July 2005 19:05, Torsten Rahn wrote:
> > > It's not about a "name change" (we had that one often enough) but about
> > > some more descriptive "full name". Imagine somebody who wanted a quick
> > > overview over the contents of KOffice. Having him read "Krita Painter"
> > > would certainly much more enlightening in case he's searching for a
> > > painting tool than simply "Krita".
> >
> > One day Krita'll be a household name, just like Excel :-). I've already
> > changed the descriptive name in the desktop file and I think the
> > koffice.kde.org pages are clear enough already.
>
> "Painting and Image Editing Application"

That's still horrible.

Application is entirely unnecessary.

"Painting and Image Editing" is still three words longer than I would like
and smell like another graphics manipulation program I know but if four
words is the best I can get I'll take it.

I will not have both the Brand and the Generic at the same time but it
will look silly for for anyone who does.

> That's not a Generic _Name_ but a Short Description.
>
> A name is something that is about three words at maximum.

I sent Boudewijn a patch that suggested "Krita Paint" and "Karbon 14 Draw"
which are about the most boring straightfoward menu labels I could think
of.  I would expect Paint (and Draw) to be translated into something
sensible for each locale and Krita to be treated as the brand name and
left untranslated so user can mentally skip trying to understand what
Krita means (and Swedish users can just be left wondering what's going
on).

> Sorry, but this is what gives us people who want to distribute KDE to
> customers headaches because having such long generic names displayed in the
> menu is an absolute nono.

The most important thing to do is come to a decision quickly because the
translators will want to hurt you severly if they have to retranslate the
.desktop file again (but if you do decided to go with something really
simple maybe they wont mind quite as much.)

I was only joking/wishful thinking when I suggested I might someday be
able to call it "paint" and have people know what I meant Krita Paint but
I do hope wish you all the best of luck.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/


P.S.  In the list digest the mails are marked:
To      : "Krayon (KImageShop)" <kimageshop at kde.org>

You might want to change that Krita $WHATEVER when this discussion is
resolved.