Question

This is somehow subjective depending on the target translation language, but bear with me for a sec.

I have recently been involved in a translation project. The goal was to translate the strings of an MVC framework to the Greek language.

70% of the language strings of the framework where translated, however 30% where intentionally left out. The decision was that we will not translate error messages aimed towards the developer of the application.

The reasoning behind this (in short) was:

1. are aimed towards designers/programmers.
   Programmers ( and even designers 🙂 ) should have a basic
   understanding of English, at least enough so
   they can search on it on Google if
   they do not know what it means. (racist?)

2. are aimed towards the developer
   and in a perfect world should not be
   displayed to the end user of the
   application as they concern the
   inner workings of the web
   application itself. i.e “You must
   set the database name in your
   database config file.”

3. and perhaps most importantly,
   they make the life of the developer
   harder when he tries to get more
   information/help regarding the
   error. For example the above error
   yields 8 results in Google (in
   quotes), whereas its Greek
   translation yields exactly 0.

I know that this depends on the popularity of the target translation language and the application itself. For example I’m guessing that there are is vast amount of documentation regarding German SAP error messages (i know, i know, SAP IS German, but you get the point), as opposed to Greek Error Messages documentation regarding random application X which has about 500 installations worldwide.

So to summarize: When you develop language translation packs for your applications do you translate error messages? Do you only do for predominant languages like English/Spanish/German/French? Or do you leave them intact? I’m not looking for the “right” or “correct” answer, I’m looking for a “best-practices” answer, or if this problem is defined in any “official” standard/policy that you have had experience with.

Answer 1

A good framework that includes built-in error messages should have an option to i18n them. This is important entirely for the user.

Exceptions messages on the other hand must not be translated. You already pointed out an important reason – searching. And yes, they are for developers, not end-users.

If an exception message is also used as a display message to the user, this is wrong design. Exceptions may contain i18n keys.