Would it be possible to show context next to strings?

[LennyLinux]

This applies especially to the main site translations, but also for some of the games (especially the larger ones such as Race for the Galaxy which I recently finished translating). Despite being familiar with the site and the games I'm translating there's sometimes a lot of guess work as to what the strings are referring to (especially with short strings which probably are meant to be added to strings with variable in them).

Here are some examples from the main site which are yet to be translated to Swedish. Context for them are welcome (so I can translate), but I'm mostly including them here to (attempt to) illustrate how difficult it can be to guess what context a string belongs to:

Auto-update the value by counting some elements

Which value? Which elements?

Can be selected, even if no other sandbox interaction has been enabled (only for script usage)

What can be selected? Which script usage?

Show tables being processed

Processed for what? In what way?

The main site currently contains 2770 strings in total, that's a lot to keep track of. If a good (grammatically correct) and accurate (in regards to context) translation result is to be produced I think there needs to be some kind of context available for the strings.

I don't know if this is possible at all, but perhaps the translation interface could show some snippet of the page where the string is being used?

[Liallan]

We all have the "context" problem and they're totally aware of that. The guide that's posted up top mentions this, and Een has commented on it a few times.

It's always been suggested to just translate as literally as possible, then while people are playing the game in that language, they can spot anything that doesn't seem right (including you), and within context then try to get it fixed. That's really about the best that can be done right now. If all else fails, ask here.

It gets easier, or at least it's gotten easier for me. Some of the single-word things do get used in other strings, and some short things are actually on buttons. I also have taken to opening a recently finished game and running through the play back, just to get a feel for what is what, how things are worded, where in the game it shows up, etc, and can have that open along side the translator. I also have watched a few live games because you sometimes see more. This has helped me a lot, and it helps with consistency issues. (I'm doing English only, so that's where consistency starts.)

As to the site itself, it was suggested to me to pay attention while I'm just using the site and if I spot something, I can search for that string. Since you're actually translating, you could maybe take a screen shot of things and then go find those strings, so you're getting an area at a time. The newest stuff is a bit easier, because I recognize things from changes they've made, like for instance I was recently looking at things I knew were related to the new Simple Mode for the invitation list, and some new things on the Community page. So finding context for those was pretty easy. But... there always seems to be something I can't find.

Having context would indeed be really nice, but for right now we don't have it. Just like it would be nice to organize stuff in some way, which would really help for consistency purposes.

[Liallan]

P.S. I don't where where the things you listed are. But that third one reminds me of something. Sometimes you see a quick glance of something the system is processing. I can't think of anything specific, but like during a game it could saying something like "updating player scores," and you might only see a quick flash of that before the message about someone's turn comes up. Also, I'm fairly sure some of the things are for the game development - I can't think of examples but I've seen things that point to that. So you may never see these things.

(I could even guess the things you listed might be related to development.)

[LennyLinux]

That has been my strategy thus far too. Whenever I play a translated game I try to keep the translation interface at hand so I'm able to correct any strings that may be wrong, and when I spot anything strange on the main page I search among the main page strings to correct the error. Similarly when translating I try to search for recurring terms to make sure that the translations are consistent throughout the game (such as "table" always using the same translated word wherever it occurs on the page).

I think you're correct that a lot of the "stranger" strings are for BGA Studio, whenever I'm unsure of such strings I write in the translation comment something along the lines of "BGA Studio, feel free to improve if possible" to give a heads up to other translators. By the way, can anyone register for BGA Studio? Even if you're not a developer? Just to see how the translation look when they're live.

[Een]

Here is the post where I explained about context if you are interested: https://fr.boardgamearena.com/#!forum/v ... 11&t=11097

About "Show tables being processed" this was in the first version of the Simple Lobby (tables are created/processed automatically). It's not used anymore and shouldn't appear in the translation system, but sometimes an unused string stays in the code and still shows up.

BGA studio is used by developers speaking English, so the language for BGA studio is actually English: there shouldn't be many strings in the translation system coming from BGA studio in the mainsite section. "Strange" things are actually more likely to match old retired functions incorrectly cleaned up or functions being developed and not yet available