Polish dates: declension

[Marek Zielinski]

Translation of dates in Polish is somewhat complicated because of declension. I was wandering, if anybody has encountered similar problem (it is almost unknown in English), and if code exists to deal with it. Or, if it can be done at all.

A typical date in English is 17 May 1800. In variations of the date, the word May is unchanged, so 'May 1800, before May 1800, etc. can be translated using only the 'May' keyword.

In Polish (and many other languages), the month's names undergoe declension:

17 May 1800 -> 17 Maja 1800
May 1800    -> Maj 1800
From 17 May 1800 to 23 May 1800  -> od 17 Maja 1800 do 23 Maja 1800
before May 1800 -> przed Majem 1800
etc.

This applies to other phrases as well, but the dates are most glaring for the native language speaker (not computer guru, who routinely mixes languages just to get by...)

Any thoughts?

-Marek

[Greg Roach]

Convert all dates to numeric format? 2005-05-01

:-)

[Marek Zielinski]

Converting dates to numeric format would certainly be a solution. Also, it would be a step back, because nobody speaks like this, and 1 May 2005 is much more readable than 2005-05-01. It would be admitting defeat :-)

[Greg Roach]

The design of PGV allows for each language to have a customised date formatting routine.  We already have them for Turkish, Finnish and Hebrew.  If you can provide simple instructions (for a non-polish speaker!), I'll be happy to look at this for you.

[Marek Zielinski]

Greg,

Thanks a lot. I will prepare a set of rules (a table and some algorithms). Should I post it here or send you directly? I can also contribute to translation to Polish, which is incomplete - I hope I will find the instructions somewhere.

About the list of case modifiers: I found some (but not all) in the help window, and some others by trial and error. Do I list all (modifiers may need different cases):

ABT (about)
BEF (before)
AFT (after)
BET (between) AND (and)
FROM   TO

Those seem to be all that the GEDCOM standard.

_Marek

[Greg Roach]

Marek,

I suggest you post a new feature request, and assign it to me.  The full list of modifiers is:

BET xxx AND yyy
FROM xxx TO yyy
FROM xxx
TO xxx
BEF xxx
AFT xxx
ABT xxx
EST xxx
INT xxx (text)
CAL xxx

EST means estimated (e.g. 21 years before date of marriage)
CAL means calculated (e.g. from date of death and age at death)
INT means interpreted from the text in brackets (text contains hints/clues)

And just for clarification;

FROM/TO means the event happened continuously from the start date to the end date.  e.g. an occupation.

BET/AND/BEF/AFT means the event happened on a single day, but we don't know exactly which day.  e.g. a marriage.

For the incomplete polish translation, I suggest you use the admin tools to update the missing text, and then post your new xxxx.pl.php files to the patches area.