Should strings containing only numeric digits be translated?

[jephly]

In Letter Tycoon, one of the game options allows selecting a number of retries (in automatic challenge mode).
The options are "None", "1, "2", "3, "4, "5", or "Unlimited".
Clearly "None" and "Unlimited" need to be translated.
But what about the purely numeric options ("1", "2", "3", "4", and '5")?

I received a suggestion to remove these (basically remove the "totranslate" wrapper around them in gameoptions.inc.php) but I'm not sure whether that's appropriate. (Suggestion report here: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=28251)

[ufm]

Arabic numerals are universal, and already almost all games in BGA use Arabic numerals only.
I can find Roman numerals for few games (e.g. 7 Wonders), but have never seen Arabic numerals translated into another numeral system.
Strings with only digits... feel quite redundant.

[jephly]

Don't some languages, such as Japanese, at least have the option of other characters for numbers?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numerals

[ufm]

Some languages have their own numerals.
However having an alternative option does not mean it is optimal.

For example, current Japanese translations in BGA, including Letter Tycoon, use Arabic numerals in almost all cases even if the other option (kanji) exists.
Few strings use own numerals like Koikoi's yaku names, which are proper nouns in kanji, but this is not a translation after all since Koikoi is a Japanese game.
Of course big numbers require own notations sometimes (hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.), but strings containing only single or double digits do not fit for such a change.

[jephly]

It's hard to be sure that no supported language, either today or in the future, will not want to show these in a different way.

Is it really that much of a burden to have a handful of translations that don't need any change most or even all of the time?

I could easily change these, of course, but I'm pretty sure that would generate warnings in the translation checker tool, because it doesn't know this special case. So I feel it's a little cleaner and safer to just leave them in.

[ufm]

Ultimately it depends on the developer. There is no rule forbidding the dev to add digit-only strings.
So if you think there is no problem with allowing to 'translate' such strings then it is totally fine to make them available in translation HQ.
Definitely uncommon, but indeed it is not forbidden.

I replied to the question which asks whether this feels redundant or not, but actually I don't mind adding such strings.
Everybody (or almost) likes easy gift points

[KongKing123]

It's hard to be sure that no supported language, either today or in the future, will not want to show these in a different way.

But it doesn't achieve this. You would have to provide strings for all possible numeric values in your game, and code all of them to use translated versions. And even then, it would be terribly inefficient to do this separately for all of the 250+ games on here. It would have to be handled by some sort of site-wide system.

The main site doesn't support anything like this, nor do any of the other games, to my knowledge. Hence, properly implementing this would require a complete overhaul of all numerals on the site, including all of its games. There is no tangible benefit to this since, for all practical purposes, Arabic numerals are universal. Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, ... all recognise them. And to be honest, I doubt anyone who doesn't at least passively understand them would find much use in an international site such as this one.

Is it really that much of a burden to have a handful of translations that don't need any change most or even all of the time?

It's not a huge burden, it just clutters up the translations and creates pointless work. Letter Tycoon only has 5 strings at the moment, so this by itself isn't a lot. However, multiplied by the 30 or so available languages on the site, that's still 150 in total. And you might decide that you need more some day, again creating extra work.

Via Magica had like 30 of these (basically 1 out of 6 pages), which prompted me to suggest hiding them. If all current games on the site had 30 of these strings, we'd collectively have 225 000 "translations" to do. I think that time would be better served translating meaningful strings.

I could easily change these, of course, but I'm pretty sure that would generate warnings in the translation checker tool, because it doesn't know this special case. So I feel it's a little cleaner and safer to just leave them in.

I don't know the technical implications behind it; I just figured you forgot to disable a switch or something, and that I might as well point that out. What you do with the suggestion is up to you, I didn't intend to start a huge discussion.

[jephly]

So, I made a change that should have removed these, but they're still there. I'm not sure why.

The strings in question are in gameoptions. I changed the code, clicked the "refresh game options" button, pushed a new version, and waited until the next day - but the digits still appear on the translation pages. Is there something I missing? What might be going on?

[Woodruff]

So, I made a change that should have removed these, but they're still there. I'm not sure why.

Hi,
I have always seen that orphan strings can remain for some (how long exactly, I dunno?) moment.
To cover the subject more generally, I think the potential handling should be made at the BGA level, not on the game, since it would be logical to be consistant between all games, and the work would be done once and for all.

I think that is doable, after all, the BGA staff implemented an automatic handling for things like neutral genre replacement of "his" to "their" in English strings, so why not this kind of thing of numerals?

My に (two) cents,

Woodruff