[Scilab-Dev] Scilab localization

[Serge Steer]

Sylvestre Ledru a écrit :
> Hello,
>
> We (well, mainly Vincent) wrote some bits about the standard english
> messages on the wiki:
> http://wiki.scilab.org/Localization_in_English_-_Standard_messages
> to normalize outputs (standard, warnings and errors).
>
> Do you have any comments/ideas/whatever ?
>
> Cheers,
> Sylvestre
> PS: We will open a mailing list for localization. 
> Probably one per language or one to rule them all.
>
>   
Sylvestre Ledru a écrit :
> Hello,
>
> We (well, mainly Vincent) wrote some bits about the standard english
> messages on the wiki:
> http://wiki.scilab.org/Localization_in_English_-_Standard_messages
> to normalize outputs (standard, warnings and errors).
>
> Do you have any comments/ideas/whatever ?
>
> Cheers,
> Sylvestre
> PS: We will open a mailing list for localization. 
> Probably one per language or one to rule them all.
>
>   
Good idea and good starting point! some remarks however:

Data type naming
-------------------------
 - for 1x1 array I think it shoud be better to just use the article "a"
: a real, a polynom, a character string, a boleean, a rational fraction,
a (8|16|32)-bit integer, an (8|16|32)-bit integer,... rather than the
term scalar

- for matrices squareness is also often tested, there is also test on
particular properties (upper/lower triangular, diagonal, symmetric,
hermitian, definite positive,...

- the terms "vector" and "matrix" refer to linear algebra, so for
character strings it is better to use the term "array".  May be is
should be a good idea to use either matrix/vector or array depending on
the fact we are in the context of linear algebra or not
for exemple it is better to call the output of the root function "column
array" instead of column vector. Similarily it should be better to
refer  input/output of sin as array rather than matrix, but the msin
arguments should be refer a matrices.

- In my opinion it should be better not to see  hypermat's (arrays with
more than 2 dimensions) as a special case (the way they are coded)  but
just the case of arrays with more than 2 dimensions adding a column at
the right of the tabular. It alsobe better to denote them "nD arrays"
rather than hypermatrices.

- The cells (ce) are used to store 2D or nD  arrays where each entry can
have every type

-The structs (st) are used to store datastructure they can have multiple
fields and can also have dimensions

Error messages / arguments

- some examples do not follow the above data type naming( string instead
of character string
- it should be more convenient to refer the argument position by a number :
"%s: Wrong type for input argument number %d: a character string
expected.\n"

- for wrong values, I think it is better saying "elements must have ....
"%s: Input argument number %d must have finite elements.\n"
"%s: Input argument number %d  must have elements with integer values.\n"
"%s: Input argument number %d must have non negative integer elements.\n"
"%s: Input argument number %d : Must have its elements in ]%d %d].\n"
"%s: Input argument number %d : Must have its elements in [%d %d[.\n"

- for wrong sizes, I prefer to use the term "length" for the size of a
character string:
"%s: Argument number %d  must have a length less than %d\n" 
- for incompatible size (or type) I think the message shoud include the
numbers of the corresponding input arguments
"%s: Incompatible arguments %d and %d. They should have the same row
dimension\n"
"%s: Incompatible arguments %d and %d. They should have the same number
of elements\n"

Error message/memory

There is currently to different error message relative to memory ( the
scilab stack is not big enough, it is not possible to allocate more memory)
"%s: Not enough allocatable memory (requested %d bytes).\n"
"%s: Too small stack  (requested %d bytes, available %d bytes).\n stack
size may ne increased using the stacksize function"

Serge