Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

I'm doing localization for cell-modem-ui (Cellular Modem Control Buttons) and I've gathered nice set of translations in this thread.

I'm facing a dilemma now: while having localized application name is nice, it makes really hard for people to talk about that app. While english talking (or people who use english as their device language) know app as its original name, how can Finnish people for example know what app it is on their device if it suddenly reads "Puhelinmodeemin hallintanapit" or something similar?

Does it make sense only to localize the package description, but not app name?

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

No do not localize the app name, for example when searching for it in google it will be impossible to find it.
imagine having to search for windows xp then fenetres xp then ???????? xp then ventanas xp and so on...
________
Honeyfairy

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

Yeah, I think most apps have the same name worldwide.

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

Localization of package descriptions appear to be very little used. I checked extras, extras-testing and extras-devel:

Using finnish locale I found 1 app with localized name, 0 descriptions.

With german language I found 1 app with localized name and 7 with localized descriptions.

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

There's no yes or no.... If it's a real name, I guess it wouldn't be good to translate it. Like Microsoft doesn't translate "Word" when they sell it worldwide.

OTOH, if it's more of a description, there's pros and cons. Take "Extra Decoders Support" as an example. In this case, the "name" is more of a description. The author was so clever to translate it as "Erweiterte A/V Formatunterstützung", "Décodeurs A/V supplémentaires", "Soporta mas decodificadores", "Supporto per decoder supplementari" etc etc - and this looks really, really cool in the application manager. It almost forces you to download it because he talks to you in your language. (And it is a popular package, isn't it?)
On the other hand, as people pointed out here, it may make it more difficult for those who have a question about their "Erweiterte A/V Formatunterstützung" to ask the question in this English-only forum.

"Cellular Modem Control Buttons" is a similar case. Especially as "Cellular" isn't one of the words you often use as a person who only speaks a little English.

I think if you know the pros and cons, you have to make the decision yourself.

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

This is a real problem IMHO. I tried to send translations to a few package maintainers, but only some included them so far.

Actually, I think at some later point translated package descritpions should be enforced as a prerequisite for getting into Extras in the first place. It's an absolutely intolerable thing to force English package descriptions on people who run a German/French/Finnish/... UI. So unprofessional... and yet it could be changed with so little effort.

I wonder why this is. Don't the developers know about this possibility or don't they care?

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

Would it make more sense to not localise the name for the reasons mentioned, but include a translation of "Cellular Modem Control Buttons" in the package description. This may mean that the description is not 100% faithful translation from the original - is that allowed?

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

Since the name of the application is a description about what it does (hence the app really doesn't have a proper name), then it should be translatable.

This is not a dillemma.

Your very simple application can have a proper name (e.g. "Catorize"), but since what it does can be described in one short sentence, it's more informative and prominent to display that as the name ("Puts menu icons into proper categories"), making it more discoverable for end-users, and we don't care about brand recognition. We sometimes don't have much of a UI (or any UI for that matter) that users can identify with, so even more so (Catorize or my package).

Your single-purpose application or an application the purpose of which can be described in two, three words ("gPodder Podcast Client") can have a proper name, but the name is still descriptive, which is good. The description should still be translatable ("Klient podcastów gPodder").

Then there's the third category of apps, which don't have focus on a specific purpose, they're like a Swiss army knife (e.g. "Tweakr"), or the mechanics of which cannot be easily described (some games), so you can get away with having just the proper name in the name field, but you still need the description in the description field and I can almost guarantee that even the basic functionality description provided by the application will not fit there, so the end-users will have to be adventerous to take a look at your work (that obviously doesn't truly affect e.g. games).

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

I think the description is pretty nice as is, the first line clearly explains what the app does - it places an icon to powerkey menu reading Tablet Mode/Phone Mode.

Currently I won't localize the app name, simply because I didn't ask for translations for that originally :) Lets see later if its necessary, I'm somehow feeling that localizing app name is a bad thing in this case, despite Tomasz convincing me that CMCUI isn't a cool short name ;-)

Re: Dilemma: to localize application's name or not?
 

Yes, a better name would be "Tablet/Phone Mode Switcher" or "Tablet Mode/Phone Mode Buttons". The current name is so obviously nerdy it hurts :)