[QAC] A few translation/standardization issues

[Youcef Rabah Rahal <rahal at arabeyes dot org>]

Salam all,

Note:
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This message is primarily destined to the QAC members. But while QAC members 
answer is somehow mandatory ;-), everyone's opinion is highly welcome (and 
QAC is not a closed club after all).

I wanted to raise these few questions to be discussed so we could hopefully 
attain a decision (even a temporary one) and be near a standardization.

1/ What about using Shadda in translation ?
2/ And Harakat ?
3/ Translating foreign names.

Here's my opinion, waiting for yours :-)

1/ Shadda should be mandatory.
Since Shadda over a letter means it becomes doubled, I think that not using it 
is a spelling mistake.

2/ I am not sure about Harakat. In many cases they help differentiate between 
similar spellings and different pronunciations (that's why they have been 
invented after all ;-), Most of the time they are not necessary... Should 
this be decided case by case ? i.e.: let the translator decide ?

3/ I think there are some names that are almost common in their Arabic 
transliterated form: for ex: أينشتاين :-) and which are understandable right 
away. However, in PO files we often encounter developers names. I suggest to 
transliterate their names in Arabic, while keeping the Latin form between 
brackets...

There are of course (lots of) other issues: acronyms, imperative forms, and of 
course the whole common_terms.po file ;-) but let's start with the three 
above.

Salam, 

-- 
Youcef R. Rahal
Arabeyes.org
http://www.arabeyes.org/~rahal