[OT] Quality of software localization

[Tomek Sowiński]

Dnia 27-08-2010 o 22:03:46 Stanislav Blinov <stanislav.blinov at gmail.com>  
napisał(a):

> I can tell that this wasn't true even 15 years from here. Books,  
> interviews, movies, games - all had solid and nice translations,  
> pleasant to read an hear. But something has changed. And not for the  
> best.
>  But during the time when 'localization' was not all that bad funny  
> things did happen too. Here in Russia there's an accountant software  
> package developed by 1C for some 10-15 years now. It has builtin  
> language that has natural 'English' form, but is available also  
> completely localized. All constructs, functions, keywords, everything is  
> translated into Russian. I can say that average-skilled programmer or  
> coder could easily catch up that language if he saw it in normal  
> English. But catching up this 'localized' flavor is a big PITA.

Reminds me of my previous job where I did plenty of Excel. Now, for some  
functions Polish names were natural:
SUM -> SUMA
AVERAGE -> ŚREDNIA
LEN -> DŁ
SLOPE -> NACHYLENIE

But common workhorse functions were notoriously given names so descriptive  
that made the writer's wrists ache and the reader's eyes tear:
STDEV -> ODCH.STANDARDOWE
VLOOKUP -> WYSZUKAJ.PIONOWO
MID -> FRAGMENT.TEKSTU
TRIM -> USUŃ.ZBĘDNE.ODSTĘPY
MMULT -> MACIERZ.ILOCZYN
NORMSINV -> ROZKŁAD.NORMALNY.S.ODW

Oh, and if the problem called for a turbo spreadsheet, I had to re-learn  
the function names all over because in VBA they're English. :-/


Tomek