[GRASS-dev] wxgui_items.xml: outdated

[Markus Neteler]

On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 3:39 PM, Vaclav Petras <wenzeslaus at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 9:41 AM, Markus Neteler <neteler at osgeo.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have realized that gui/wxpython/xml/wxgui_items.xml is not properly
>> updated with the current module descriptions.
>
> Do you mean description elements in wxgui_items.xml? Or do you mean other
> XMLs as well?

For now I mean wxgui_items.xml. Since I am not familiar with the
mechanism I didn't check the rest.

> In general, the label element in both wxgui_items.xml and toolboxes.xml is a
> menu-specific string which is supposed to be very short (1-3 words) and
> mostly in a form of command, possibly ending with three dots. There is
> nothing like this in modules, although it would be a good idea to have it
> there. (Note that label and description elements in the menus are something
> else than label and description in modules; this should be fixed as well.)

Yeah, it is a bit confusing.

> The description element in toolboxes.xml is taken from label and
> description. In wxgui_items.xml, content element and description element is
> unique to this file, although there might be some overlaps. Is this what you
> mean? Do you have some examples?

For an example, see
https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/changeset/66687

This subtle "tuning" of strings is not a good idea.

grep "label\|description" wxgui_items.xml | wc -l
116

of almost identical strings. Almost means not identical which means
that all of them have to be translated again. Rather a PITA for the
translators.

> Here is some documentation:
>
> https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/browser/grass/trunk/gui/wxpython/docs/wxgui_sphinx/src/wxgui_toolboxes.rst#L200
> https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/browser/grass/trunk/gui/wxpython/xml/toolboxes.dtd
> https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/browser/grass/trunk/gui/wxpython/xml/wxgui_items.dtd

I started to read the README but it is rather short :-)

>> This is an issue since we get duplication of almost identical strings
>> which then drive mad our translators.
>>
>> It is really a job for
>> gui/wxpython/tools/update_menudata.py
>> but this scripts seems to be also outdated while looking to be the
>> perfect solution.
>
> I looks like there is no use for this script now. What I know is in the doc
> which says that "Historically, menudata.xml file was in the source codes and
> was partially maintained by the script
> ``gui/wxpython/tools/update_menudata.py`` which updated the description and
> keywords (based on module's label or description, and keywords)."
>
> I'm not sure if I was ever able to run the original workflow successfully
> (before introducing the toolboxes) which is partially the reason why the
> README still mentions update_metadata.py.

OK, it would be good to clean that up.

> https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/browser/grass/trunk/gui/wxpython/docs/wxgui_sphinx/src/wxgui_toolboxes.rst#L230
> https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/browser/grass/trunk/gui/wxpython/README#L64
>
> The main point is that all updates now happen automatically,

Indeed not completely since xml/wxgui_items.xml appears to be manually
written (or outdated and based on older description lines?)

> so there is no
> need for manual patching of menudata.xml or any other file as it was in the
> past.

... yes, which is good.

> The issue which the new system inherited from the old one is that the
> description element in GUI XMLs is a combination of label and description
> from a module's interface description as the documentation linked above
> says. I always wondered why this doesn't bother translators,

It does.

> but since I don't understand the translation process,

In which sense? You take a po file and translate... a very lengthy
job. And almost identical strings have to be translated several times
which does not encourage anyone.

It would be great to have a script which autoextracts the strings for
gui/wxpython/xml/wxgui_items.xml as "dry" run (similar to how the old
tools/update_menudata.py worked) in order to decide on a case by case
base when to abbreviate or when not. Again, r66687 is an example where
I reinstated the actual wording, a perfect computer job.

Hope you see now what I mean,

Markus