2014 NEWS 2014-05-23 - NEW MODULE: Uize.Loc.Pseudo
The new Uize.Loc.Pseudo module provides methods to facilitate the pseudo-localization of the resource strings of an application.
1. Overview
Pseudo-localization is a process of programmatically "translating" application text (typically English) to a pseudo-locale to aid in identifying i18n (internationalization) and L10n (localization) issues in the application.
Consider the following example of text before and after pseudo-localization...
SOURCE TEXT
Your account settings have been saved.
PSEUDO-LOCALIZED TEXT
[Ýöûŕ_ åççöûñţ__ šéţţîñĝš___ ĥåṽé_ ƀééñ_ šåṽéð__.]
By looking at the pseudo-localized text, you can tell that it has been derived from the source English text, which means that pseudo-localized text is still sufficiently readable that various people involved in design, development, and testing can navigate through the user interface of an application in the pseudo-localized state.
2. Basic Processes
The technique of pseudo-localization involves applying the following three processes to the original source text...
| accenting - this is the process of converting ASCII alphabetical characters to accented Unicode versions | |
| expansion - this is the process of adding extra expansion characters to simulate the expansion that typically occurs when English text is translated to languages like German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. | |
| wrapping - this is the process of wrapping translated text with characters (typically square brackets) to indicate the boundaries of individual resource strings and help to identify issues with truncation and concatenation |
These processes are discussed in further detail in the section Pseudo-localization Features.
3. Advantages of Pseudo-localization
As an i18n technique, pseudo-localization offers the following advantages...
3.1. It's Free
Because pseudo-localization can be performed programmatically, it is essentially a free form of pseudo-translation.
Translation using human translators can be a costly process. Pseudo-localization is a cost effective alternative to traditional translation when one is only trying to expose issues with internationalization (e.g. hard-coded text) or localization (e.g. layout issues).
3.2. It's Immediate
Because pseudo-localization can be performed programmatically, results can be available immediately for review.
Translation using human translators can be slow and is certainly not instantaneous. Pseudo-localization can be a virtually instantaneous process, allowing designers, developers, testers, and others to discover and address problems earlier in the development cycle, without having to be slowed down by a translation process that could take days or even weeks.
3.3. It Makes Testing Easier
Because pseudo-localized text is still readable as English, pseudo-localization makes it easier to test an application to discover i18n and L10n issues than if the text were truly translated to another language.
Pseudo-localized text is intended to resemble the source English text from which it is derived, specifically so that designers, developers, testers, and others can still navigate the application in the pseudo-localized state.
4. Pseudo-localization Features
The Uize.Loc.Pseudo module supports several pseudo-localization features, including accenting, expansion, and wrapping.
4.1. Accenting
Accenting is the process of converting Latin alphabetical characters from the ASCII character set to accented Unicode versions.
4.1.1. Accenting Enabled By Default
Accenting is enabled by default in the Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize method.
EXAMPLE
Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize ('Your account settings have been saved.');
OUTPUT
[Ýöûŕ_ åççöûñţ__ šéţţîñĝš___ ĥåṽé_ ƀééñ_ šåṽéð__.]
What you will notice from the output in the above example is that the pseudo-localized text is still readable - all the ASCII alphabetical characters have been replaced with accented Unicode variants that are analagous to the originals.
4.1.2. Disabling Accenting
Accenting can be disabled by specifying the value false for the accent property in the options object, as shown in the example below...
EXAMPLE
Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize ('Your account settings have been saved.',{accent:false});
OUTPUT
[Your_ account__ settings___ have_ been_ saved__.]
4.2. Expansion
Expansion is the process of adding extra expansion characters to simulate the expansion that typically occurs when English text is translated to languages like German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.
The Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize method implements expansion by adding extra characters at the end of words. Consider the following example...
EXAMPLE
Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize ('Your account settings have been saved.');
OUTPUT
[Ýöûŕ_ åççöûñţ__ šéţţîñĝš___ ĥåṽé_ ƀééñ_ šåṽéð__.]
What you will notice from the above example is that each word is expanded by the addition of a suffix of "_" (underscore) characters. This is the default expansion behavior, but it can be overridden by specifying a custom expansion factor and custom expansion character.
4.2.1. How Expansion is Performed
Expansion is performed according to the following steps...
| the source string is split into separate words using a word splitter regular expression | |
| the total character count for all the words is computed | |
| the amount of expansion characters to add is computed, by applying the expansion factor to the total character count of all the words | |
| the computed amount of expansion characters is distrubted proportionately across all the words (a word that is twice as long as some other word will get roughly twice the number of expansion characters added as that other word) | |
| the pseudo-localized string is constructed by concatenating the expanded words with the non-word segments |
4.2.2. Expansion Factor
In order to determine how many expansion characters should be added to the source string, an expansion factor is applied to the total number of word characters in the source string.
The expansion factor is specified as a floating point number, representing the ratio of word characters in the pseudo-localized string to word characters in the source string. So, for example, an expansion factor of 2 means that the pseudo-localized string will have twice as many word characters as the source string, meaning that the length of every word will be doubled, meaning that the total length of all the words will be increased by 100% (different ways of saying the same thing, really).
EXPANSION OF 2
[Ýöûŕ____ åççöûñţ_______ šéţţîñĝš________ ĥåṽé____ ƀééñ____ šåṽéð_____.]
Similarly, an expansion factor of 1.3 means that there will be 30% more word characters in the pseudo-localized string than the source string.
EXPANSION OF 1.3
[Ýöûŕ_ åççöûñţ__ šéţţîñĝš___ ĥåṽé_ ƀééñ_ šåṽéð__.]
4.2.3. Expansion Character
When pseudo-localizing a source string, words from the source string are expanded by appending zero or more of a specific expansion character.
While the Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize method uses a default expansion character, a custom expansion character can also be specified explicitly.
4.2.4. Default Expansion
Without specifying explicit values for expansion factor and expansion character. the Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize method uses default expansion factor and default expansion character values.
4.2.4.1. Default Expansion Factor
When a custom expansion factor is not explicitly specified, the default value 1.3 is used for the expansion factor.
4.2.4.2. Default Expansion Character
When a custom expansion character is not explicitly specified, the default value '_' (an underscore) is used for the expansion character.
4.2.5. Custom Expansion
Custom expansion factor and custom expansion character values can be specified explicitly to achieve custom expansion.
4.2.5.1. Custom Expansion Factor
When the default expansion factor is not suitable, a custom expansion factor can be specified for the expansion property of the options object.
EXAMPLE
Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize ('Your account settings have been saved.',{expansion:2});
RESULT
[Ýöûŕ____ åççöûñţ_______ šéţţîñĝš________ ĥåṽé____ ƀééñ____ šåṽéð_____.]
4.2.5.2. Custom Expansion Character
When the default expansion character is not suitable, a custom expansion character can be specified for the expansionChar property of the options object.
EXAMPLE
Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize ('Your account settings have been saved.',{expansionChar:'~'});
RESULT
[Ýöûŕ~ åççöûñţ~~ šéţţîñĝš~~~ ĥåṽé~ ƀééñ~ šåṽéð~~.]
4.3. Wrapping
Wrapping is the process of wrapping pseudo-localized text with characters (typically square brackets) to indicate the boundaries and help to identify issues with truncation and concatenation.
4.3.1. Default Wrapper
By default, the Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize method wraps all pseudo-localized text in square brackets.
EXAMPLE
Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize ('Your account settings have been saved.');
OUTPUT
[Ýöûŕ_ åççöûñţ__ šéţţîñĝš___ ĥåṽé_ ƀééñ_ šåṽéð__.]
4.3.2. Custom Wrapper
When the square brackets used as the default wrapper is not suitable, the Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize method allows a custom wrapper to be specified using the wrapper property in the options object.
EXAMPLE
Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize ('Your account settings have been saved.',{wrapper:'[- -]'});
RESULT
[- Ýöûŕ_ åççöûñţ__ šéţţîñĝš___ ĥåṽé_ ƀééñ_ šåṽéð__. -]
When applying a custom wrapper, the wrapper string is split into two halves, the first of which is used as a prefix, and the second of which is used as a suffix.
4.3.3. No Wrapper
The wrapping process can be effectively disabled by specifying the value '' (empty string) for the wrapper property in the options object, as shown in the example below...
EXAMPLE
Uize.Loc.Pseudo.pseudoLocalize ('Your account settings have been saved.',{wrapper:''});
OUTPUT
Ýöûŕ_ åççöûñţ__ šéţţîñĝš___ ĥåṽé_ ƀééñ_ šåṽéð__.
5. Comprehensively Documented and Tested
The Uize.Loc.Pseudo module is comprehensively documented and has exhaustive unit tests in the Uize.Test.Uize.Loc.Pseudo test module.