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Click here to return to the 'Using localized names is not a' hint
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Using localized names is not a
Authored by: Drogoul on Sep 27, '02 05:06:13AM

My native language is French. One of the things that annoyed me in MacOS X before 10.2 was the lack of localization for most of the names displayed in the Finder. Having a 10 years old boy playing sometimes with my computer, I had to tell him, for instance, that "Address Book" translated to "Carnet d'adresses", or that, to find something in the "Bureau", he had to hit the icon named "Desktop". Very intuitive.
Of course, there were pros and cons with respect to full localization : remember the mess it was sometimes in OS 9 when you had two extensions loading at the same time, one called "QuickTime extension" and the other one "Extension QuickTime" ?
In 10.2, Apple made the good choice : adding the "human readable" name of files to the localized resources (either in app bundles or hidden property lists). This way, I can launch the address book by double-clicking on "Carnet d'adresses" (while observing in a log that "Address Book" is being lauched by the Finder). This is the same as changing the icon : it does not change the behaviour of the file, just changes what is being displayed on the UI (BTW, it is a fairly common principle to observe in UI design : always separate the model -- in that case, the actual file --, from the view -- the way it is displayed, be it iconic, textual, or anything you want).
The hint submitted here just extends this logic, is absolutely harmless and can be potentially useful when the localization is not as good as it should be. For example, I always preferred the word "Répertoire" to "Carnet d'Adresses" and have already changed it.

To all of you who felt paranoid about this hint, please understand that offering this kind of possibility is precisely what modern OSes/UI are for - having MacOS X allowing this is a sign of maturity, not a sign of regression. And don't forget that half of the Macintoshes sold each year are sold to non-english speaking people: English has now to be considered as one of the possible localizations for files and folders names.

Alexis



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Using localized names is not *censored*
Authored by: Rosyna on Sep 27, '02 09:58:26AM

If OS X was modern, instead of super modern, it wouldn't matter what the name of the file is.



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