[Zope3-dev] Re: selecting the translation domain in ZCML

[Philipp von Weitershausen]

Dieter Maurer wrote:
> Jean-Marc Orliaguet wrote at 2006-5-30 12:01 +0200:
>> ...
>> although -- while thinking about it, putting the domain name in .po 
>> files breaks the separation on concerns between translators and 
>> application developer. Translators shouldn't have to worry about 
>> translation domains. That's application specific.
> 
> Are you sure? In my view the translation domain is vital for translators --
> as the domain guides the correct translations.
> 
> For example, in German we have the word "Bank".
> It may mean "bench" or "bank", depending on the translation domain.

That's not how we typically use translation domains, though. In most
projects, one translation domain denotes all the translations of a
particular piece of software (a library, an application, etc.). So Zope
use 'zope', Plone uses 'plone', etc.

In order to avoid ambiguities like the one you mentioned, it is
recommended to use explicit message ids whereever short labels occur, e.g.:

  <p i18n:translate="bank-financial">Bank</p>

Then 'bank-financial' is the message id for this message. In longer
sentences, this often isn't necessary because ambiguities will be
resolved by the context:

  <p i18n:translate="">Please go to the bank and get some money</p>

Of course, your example is a bit backwards because the ambiguity isn't
in English (which typically is the source language), but in German. In
most cases, the ambiguities come from English, though, for example
because verbs and nouns are spelt the same way.

Philipp