[Scummvm-devel] Fully localisation of the GUI

[Ben Castricum]

We currently have  the "game descriptions are English limitation". Which 
is convenient because it uses latin-1/ASCII char-set and therefore no 
GUI limitations are hit. But ScummVM also offers GUI translations, and 
using a non-English GUI only get's partially translated because of the 
game descriptions limitation.

What I am trying to explore here is if there are possibilities to remove 
the "descriptions are English" limitation but stay within the GUI 
limitations. The current pull request #531 (which just translate 
language names) is an attempt on doing this. Basically, only translate 
stuff if it stays within the same charset as we now use (ascii/latin-1). 
If at some point the GUI limitations are removed things probably can be 
rewritten to a cleaner solution. Because of the sticking to the current 
char-set there are no (new) technical issues when switching language.

When looking ahead on translating game titles I would suggest the same 
approach (stay within GUI limitations). If I followed the discussion 
correctly there are 2 ideas on how translation should be done:

Translating the title to the original title (shown on box);
+ native game titles, local bought games now look nice in the list
- this creates a sorting issue
- once (/if) the GUI fully supports a different char-set per game entry 
we get issues when switching of language (or more accurate, char-set). 
Also for example I can't read Russian, so when listing all my freddi1s 
from Steam will give me some incomprehensible entries in the game list.

Another suggested approach would be using localized game titles for all 
game variations, the language name will still be part of the description.
+ native game titles, local bought games still look nice in the list
+ no sorting issue
+ all game descriptions use the same char-set so there no/less technical 
difficulties to overcome.
+ no unreadable game titles (once the GUI support a charset per game).
- not true to the real name (but then again, we aren't doing that either 
at the moment)

as an example I worked out the options with Freddi Fish 1 for a Dutch 
GUI (I hope this goes well with all e-mail clients)

Option 1a - staying within current GUI limitations:
Freddi Fish 1 - Het Verhaal van de verdwenen Zeewierzaadjes (Windows/Dutch)
Freddi Fish 1: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds (Windows/French)
Fritzi Fisch und der verschwundene Schatz (Windows/German)
Freddi Fish 1: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds (Windows/Russian)
Freddi Fish 1: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds (Windows/Swedish)

Option 1b - with per description charset support (future?) and preferred 
by most devs.
Freddi Fish 1 - Het Verhaal van de verdwenen Zeewierzaadjes (Windows/Dutch)
Marine Malice et Le Mystère Des Graines d'Algues (Windows/French)
Fritzi Fisch und der verschwundene Schatz (Windows/German)
Рыбка Фредди - Дело о морской капусте (Windows/Russian)
Freddi Fisk och fallet med de försvunna sjögräsfröna (Windows/Swedish)

Option 2 - using localised title for all variations
Freddi Fish 1 - Het Verhaal van de verdwenen Zeewierzaadjes (Windows/Dutch)
Freddi Fish 1 - Het Verhaal van de verdwenen Zeewierzaadjes (Windows/French)
Freddi Fish 1 - Het Verhaal van de verdwenen Zeewierzaadjes (Windows/German)
Freddi Fish 1 - Het Verhaal van de verdwenen Zeewierzaadjes 
(Windows/Russian)
Freddi Fish 1 - Het Verhaal van de verdwenen Zeewierzaadjes 
(Windows/Swedish)

Both options are just a matter of taste and I would suggest creating an 
option the allow the user to choose between those. Default (and also my 
personal choice) should IMHO be the latter one, because that makes sure 
that there are no "unreadable" entries.  It may be wise only allow for 
option 1 once ScummVM (incl. backends) supports per description char-set 
and non-latin-1 window titles because as already mentioned users would 
find it strange that some titles get translated while others are not.

Ben


On 7-12-2014 23:51, Thierry Crozat wrote:
> The original emails mentioned two points:
> - Translating game titles.
> - Translating the language in the game description.
>
> Regarding translating game titles I agree with Johannes and Tobia that if we translate the game title it should use the language of the detected game version, not the GUI language. This poses a technical issue though as there is no guarantee that the charset for the currently selected GUI language has the characters to display the translated game title, which may be in a different language. As long as we stick with 8 bits charsets for the GUI this will be an issue.
>
> The sorting in the game list is a good point though. I suppose we could use a sorting key that is different from the displayed text (e.g. use the untranslated text for sorting) but that might be a bit strange for the user as the list would not appear to be alphabetically sorted for non-English titles.
>
> My opinion is not as well defined for the language. It seems quite natural to me to translate the language popup selector in the game options GUI. And I have no strong objections either in translation the language in the game description. But then we might want to also translate the rest of the description fields (e.g. "Floppy", "256 colors" for some cine and cruise games) otherwise it would look strange if it was only partially translated.
>
> And there is an issue with translating the descriptions during detection that I mentioned on the pull request (when switching to a different language later on the GUI may not be able to display the description that was translated in a different language when the game was detected). Translation of the description not when the game is detected but when it is displayed in the list might be better (but also more complicated to achieve).
>
> Thierry / Criezy
>
> PS: There is something else that is not translated: the about dialog. There have been talk of translating part of it but this was not done yet, mostly due to lack of time on my side.
>
>
> On 14 Nov 2014, at 13:52, Tobia Tesan <tobia.tesan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 13/11/2014 06:15, SimSaw at gmx.de wrote:
>>> I rather think we should use the translated title.
>> My 2c: from a purely user experience point of view, I really think that
>> there is a strong case for showing /exactly/ what is written on the
>> box/cover for that particular disk.
>> So e.g. if I am Mario Rossi, the italian Joe Q. Public, when I put my
>> copy of "Gabriel Knight: Il Mistero Di Rennes-Le-Chateau" in the drive
>> and direct ScummVM to it it should say "Il Mistero Di
>> Rennes-Le-Chateau", not "GK: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of The Damned",
>> because I have no idea of what "GK3: BotS, BotD" is.
>>
>> That, of course, in an ideal world where GK3 is supported and unicorns
>> and rainbows, etc.
>>
>> -- 
>> Tobia Tesan
>> <tobia.tesan at gmail.com>
>> "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war.
>>   Defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."
>> 	-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
>>
>>
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