The Flathub quality guidelines have limits of 20 characters for Name & 35 for Summary. And devs of apps that don't meet that limit get notified by a banner about the failing checks.
I'd like to propose that too-long translations should be flagged too (maybe at a reduced severity level). They aren't necessarily under direct control of the app author, but they can report the issue onward to the translation team.
Other locales will have the same "string overflow" issues that the base language does (presumably English) - quality concerns in those languages are just as valid. So it seems fair and good to check translations too.
Musings on this topic
What if the translation is just fundamentally long?
On the other hand, it might be challenging to translate the original string in a short way for some languages. What if the concept just uses a long word? The app author likely didn't consider that when picking the source string.
Heck, English can be fundamentally long too
I have an app called Multiplication Puzzle - which is currently flagged as too long (21 characters). And I'm not going to ride for that being the best name. There are shorter alternatives like Math Puzzle or Multiplication Game I could investigate - though both have a slightly different meaning.
"Multiplication" is just a long concept in English. But it's also the most obvious conceptual "fit" for this style of game (it's named after the mpuz minigame in emacs) . Other languages might have similar issues when translating shorter English concepts. "Math Puzzle" might be really long in another language.
Some stats on two apps I maintain
Déjà Dup Backups (look, naming stuff is hard, OK):
English Name is 16 characters.
Among all the unique translations for Name, 53% are 20 characters or less.
English Summary is 31 characters.
Among all the unique translations for Summary, 74% are 35 characters or less.
Multiplication Puzzle:
English Name is 21 characters.
Among all the unique translations for Name, 65% are 20 characters or less.
English Summary is 20 characters.
Among all the unique translations for Summary, 100% are 35 characters or less.
Soft limits
The Flathub guidelines already encourage good behavior by saying "ideallly it's X short, but the limit is Y" - if the English source is X or less, it's more likely that translations will fit inside Y. That kind of soft limit encourages spare space for translations to take up if they need it.
So that's good! I'm not proposing any changes to the guidelines really. Just more visibility for app authors of any too-long translations. Especially since most authors wouldn't notice a too-long translation that's not in their normal UI language.
And maybe some kind language about what to do about it. "File an issue with the translation team" / "Use a smaller English phrase" / or whatever.
The Flathub quality guidelines have limits of 20 characters for Name & 35 for Summary. And devs of apps that don't meet that limit get notified by a banner about the failing checks.
I'd like to propose that too-long translations should be flagged too (maybe at a reduced severity level). They aren't necessarily under direct control of the app author, but they can report the issue onward to the translation team.
Other locales will have the same "string overflow" issues that the base language does (presumably English) - quality concerns in those languages are just as valid. So it seems fair and good to check translations too.
Musings on this topic
What if the translation is just fundamentally long?
On the other hand, it might be challenging to translate the original string in a short way for some languages. What if the concept just uses a long word? The app author likely didn't consider that when picking the source string.
Heck, English can be fundamentally long too
I have an app called
Multiplication Puzzle- which is currently flagged as too long (21 characters). And I'm not going to ride for that being the best name. There are shorter alternatives likeMath PuzzleorMultiplication GameI could investigate - though both have a slightly different meaning."Multiplication" is just a long concept in English. But it's also the most obvious conceptual "fit" for this style of game (it's named after the
mpuzminigame in emacs) . Other languages might have similar issues when translating shorter English concepts. "Math Puzzle" might be really long in another language.Some stats on two apps I maintain
Déjà Dup Backups (look, naming stuff is hard, OK):
Multiplication Puzzle:
Soft limits
The Flathub guidelines already encourage good behavior by saying "ideallly it's X short, but the limit is Y" - if the English source is X or less, it's more likely that translations will fit inside Y. That kind of soft limit encourages spare space for translations to take up if they need it.
So that's good! I'm not proposing any changes to the guidelines really. Just more visibility for app authors of any too-long translations. Especially since most authors wouldn't notice a too-long translation that's not in their normal UI language.
And maybe some kind language about what to do about it. "File an issue with the translation team" / "Use a smaller English phrase" / or whatever.