Re: [RFC] automatic apostrophes

[Robert Millan]

On Mon, Aug 28, 2006 at 02:09:31PM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Robert Millan <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > Are you sure you don't want a better solution?
> 
> Whether a better solution is adopted is up to Bruno, but I'm a worried
> that the solution proposed will cause more hassle and trouble than
> it'll cure.

Actualy, I didn't really propose a solution.  I just exposed the problem hoping
that some ideas would show up.

For now I suppose we can discard automated transparent conversion of all text
strings :)

> > I wouldn't mind sending a patch
> > (for English as well).
> 
> I don't know Catalan, but I think it unlikely that we can come up with
> a solution that will work well with English.  For example, if we are
> talking about the Ajax the Great, king of Salamis, the most-correct
> English is "Ajax' strengths and weaknesses".  But if we are talking
> about the Ajax web development technique, the most-correct English is
> "Ajax's strengths and weaknesses".  This is because there is a special
> exception for names of classical people like "Ajax" and "Jesus" -- an
> exception that changes both pronounciation and spelling in English.
> How would we automate that sort of thing in gettext if the format is
> "%s's strengths and weaknesses" and %s expands to "Ajax"?

The only real solution is a hardcoded list.  It is not perfect, but compare it
to what we have now, where translator has to rephrase, sometimes in very weird
ways (for Ajax, something like "strengths of Ajax" would look nice, but it's not
always that simple).

-- 
Robert Millan

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