Below is a not-unfrequent pattern I see:
1)someone complains about the width of this or that window, and that
the window in question cannot be resized. In gaim, the minimum
width of the various windows is nearly always, esp. when you look
at gaim 2.0.0cvs but this holds true of 1.x as well, determined by
the space required to show the menus. Sometimes (such as the 1.x
buddy list), by the buttons, but more often it is the menus.
2)On asking, I determine that the user is not using English for
his/her interface.
What we are seeing here is that several of the translations, not just
german, use strings substantially longer than the equivalent English
strings to represent the same ideas. I do not know if this is
because a litteral translation is longer in those languages, because
a literal translation is not being used, but some other choice to
better convey the same idea, or what really is going on. All I know
is that the end result is longer strings.
How do we address such bugs? Users are understandably upset when a
window takes up an inordinate amount of their screen space. While
many users have a warped idea of how much screen space use is "too
much," it never the less is true that the line exists _somewhere_,
and that with very long menu strings, we will exceed it.
In English, we restrict ourselves to one or two word menus, with one
word heavily favored. This sometimes yeilds menus that are not
_perfectly_ intuitive, and indeed, there have been many pushes to
reorganize our menus. Still, it gives the user an idea of what is
contained in the menu. Is it possible to simply use a shorter word
in the translations? I don't know.
luke
----- Forwarded message from "SourceForge.net" <no...@so...> -----
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 04:34:37 -0700
From: "SourceForge.net" <no...@so...>
To: no...@so...
Subject: [Gaim-bugs] [ gaim-Bugs-1333076 ] Shrinkable window
Bugs item #1333076, was opened at 2005-10-20 10:38
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by nodata101
You can respond by visiting:
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Category: None
Group: None
>Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: nodata (nodata101)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Shrinkable window
Initial Comment:
The gaim window is very wide.
We use usernames instead of real names with gaim, and
this means that the gaim window is five times wider
than it needs to be - even if I hide the icons at the
bottom.
The menu bar along the top is the problem. It would be
nice if it was hidable, or collapsible.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Comment By: nodata (nodata101)
Date: 2005-10-20 11:34
Message:
Logged In: YES
user_id=960750
German.
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Comment By: Luke Schierer (lschiere)
Date: 2005-10-20 11:31
Message:
Logged In: YES
user_id=28833
what language do you use?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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