GNU bug report logs - #75763
is the "note " particle in sort.c needed?

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Benno Schulenberg <bensberg <at> telfort.nl>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: is the "note " particle in sort.c needed?
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2025 16:31:23 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi,

In src/sort.c there is this piece of code:

      error (0, 0,
             _("%snumbers use %s as a decimal point in this locale"),
             tab == decimal_point ? "" : _("note "),
             quote (((char []) {decimal_point, 0})));

What does "note " here mean?  Is it an adjective or a verb? Or
maybe something else?  And is it needed at all?

The thing is: it makes translating both strings hard, as it's
unclear for translators that they belong together.  Please
consider dropping the "note ", or changing the code to use
two separate, full messages, without fill-in words.


Benno

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Message #10 received at 75763-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Benno Schulenberg <bensberg <at> telfort.nl>, 75763-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: is the "note " particle in sort.c needed?
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2025 17:59:20 +0000

On 22/01/2025 15:31, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> In src/sort.c there is this piece of code:
> 
>         error (0, 0,
>                _("%snumbers use %s as a decimal point in this locale"),
>                tab == decimal_point ? "" : _("note "),
>                quote (((char []) {decimal_point, 0})));
> 
> What does "note " here mean?  Is it an adjective or a verb? Or
> maybe something else?  And is it needed at all?
> 
> The thing is: it makes translating both strings hard, as it's
> unclear for translators that they belong together.  Please
> consider dropping the "note ", or changing the code to use
> two separate, full messages, without fill-in words.

"note" (which is a verb in this context), intended
to change the message from the standard warning output by --debug
to an informational message.

But there are other informational messages output by --debug
without "note", so we can drop it.

I pushed a change to do that.

Marking this as done.

cheers,
Pádraig

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