There is a mistranslation in the Japanese interface of HaikuDepot.
The term “n/a” which sometimes crops up beside the ratings stars should actually be translated as “レーティングなし” (no ratings) rather than “利用不可” (not useable, not available).
Please see screenshots of the English interface and the Japanese interface below.
Until I worked out that “n/a” had been mistranslated as “not available” instead of its actual meaning of “not applicable” in this context, I had been totally puzzled why programmes like Pycharm or Mutt were “利用不可 (Not Available)” when you look beside the ratings stars while the programme’s status was “利用可能 (Available)” in the search results list.
The online tool is our Pootle instance. I think anyone can create an account there an suggest translations and corrections.
A ‘language manager’ will have to accept and submit these changes.
@mt is the Japanese LM, maybe he can submit this correction, if he agrees with it.
I’ve made a suggestion on pootle that a better translation for “n/a” on PackageInfoView would be “レーティング待ち” (waiting for rating) rather than “利用不可” (not available) …so that users would not mistakenly think that this package is not available. I guess the question is whether there’s enough space on the PackageInfoView panel to fit this longer word length…
There seems to be enough space for the layout to grow. That said, shorter is always better.
The “n/v” appears while the rating of the package is being downloaded and when there’s no rating for that package yet. Just to make sure your translation fits both cases.
Ah, luckily waiting for rating would fit both of those cases I think. As it stands, the words 利用不可 made me think that those ones were either still pre-beta or only available for 32-bit haiku or something.
I think when seen and interacted with in the HaikuDepot app, it becomes clear quickly. It’s right beside the greyed out rating stars, gets replaced with the “Rate package…” button on mouse-over and changes to the rating value/vote-number when changing to a packages that already has a rating. Plus, the “Install ” button at the right suggests that the package is indeed available, ready for installation.
So, IMO it’s not really necessary to explicitely specify that it’s the “rating” that’s “not available” when it would become unwieldingly long.
The English term “n/a” is easier to figure out than the Japanese mistranslation “利用不可“ (literal meaning “can’t be used”) which directly contradicts “利用可能” (literally “can be used”) in the list view.
It’s true though I did figure it out after switching the locale to English to get at what the original term was. I’m admittedly a bit slow on the uptake!
I know almost nothing about Japanese and what might be confusing for their speakers. And that’s probably true for the majority of the devs who at best can judge the GUI in some other western writing system.
Therefore it’s important for actual users of a language to point out errors or improvements.
If you cannot attract discussion in this forum, consider subscribing at posting to the Japanese mailing list.
It’s easy to overlook posts in the “International” category in the forum, as they currently aren’t promoted to the front page.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve signed up to the list.
I think that maybe there just aren’t enough users of the Japanese locale to make it worth correcting the translations, but I think that non-intuitive interface elements are noticeable to the casual user, and will leave a poor impression of Haiku…
For example, the “Open” button that appears on the PackageInfoView panel after an app is installed is rendered “を開く” in Japanese which makes sense only if the app name is immediately to the left of the button.
REASON: This is because “を” is a case particle which belongs immediately after a noun (ie. the app name), and looks strange if the noun is on the other side of the panel. I’d say that this button would be fine to simply have “開く” (=“open”) on it unless the app name can be inserted on the button too, like on the uninstall button.
I’m admittedly a bit slow on the uptake!
