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From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.internat
Subject: internationalized error messages
Message-ID: <351@opus.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-Jan-86 01:03:40 EST
Article-I.D.: opus.351
Posted: Tue Jan 28 01:03:40 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Feb-86 02:01:52 EST
References: <515@cheviot.uucp> <51400005@uokvax.UUCP>
Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO
Lines: 28

> > Translating error messages: Ok. What about a french version of the infamous
> > "bad magic number".
> I'd say one should take advantage of the opportunity and do a French version
> of what the error message should have been all along, i.e. something like
> "not a .o file for this processor."...

So you've never worked on a system where they're called .b files instead of
.o files?  And is it really more helpful?  What's a .o file--we who speak
English know that it's an abbreviation for "object", but does that really
translate into French, or German, or...?

> ...If one of the results of international-
> ization is the elimination of cretinous messages like "bad magic number,"
> it deserves support from even the most isolationist of users.

My point in the preceding comments is to point out that the suggested
revision may be not a lot better than the original.  I'll grant that "bad
magic number" is a curious message--and probably has some thoroughly
amusing translations--but it's easier to criticize and much harder to do it
right.

(Imagine the plight of a novice who tries to execute some piece of data and
gets the "cannot execute" message--so he does a "chmod a+x" on the file and
tries again.  His file doesn't have a ".o" anywhere; he doesn't know what
"this processor" has to do with it; etc., etc.)
-- 
Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
   ...Worst-case analysis must never begin with "No one will ever want..."