Using id as msgctxt #83
Description
Right now, to translate the same message with two different meanings, we use the id as key. For example, if I want to translate "Normal" as both a text style and an indentation mode:
#. [homepage.text_style-0]
#. defaultMessage is:
#. Normal
#: build/messages/assets/js/scenes/Homepage/index.json
msgid "homepage.text_style-0"
msgstr "običan"
#. [homepage.indentation_mode-0]
#. defaultMessage is:
#. Normal
#: build/messages/assets/js/scenes/Homepage/index.json
msgid "homepage.indentation_mode-0"
msgstr "obično"
This works pretty well, but it means the msgid is something like "homepage.indentation_mode-0" instead of the message you wanted to translate ("Normal"). This is somewhat inconvenient, since many PO file editors now provide features like translation suggestions or basic error-checking on translations, but expect msgid to be the text you're trying to translate. So what I propose is that we add a way to specify msgctxt. For example, we could use id as msgctxt and defaultMessage as msgid:
#. [homepage.text_style-0]
#. defaultMessage is:
#. Normal
#: build/messages/assets/js/scenes/Homepage/index.json
msgctxt "homepage.text_style-0"
msgid "Normal"
msgstr "običan"
#. [homepage.indentation_mode-0]
#. defaultMessage is:
#. Normal
#: build/messages/assets/js/scenes/Homepage/index.json
msgctxt "homepage.indentation_mode-0"
msgid "Normal"
msgstr "obično"
This allows us to use defaultMessage as msgid but still translate different meanings by using id as context (msgctxt). It's also a little less confusing to translators (at least the ones I asked) since the text they are trying to translate shows up where they expect in their PO file editors.
Let me know what you think! Thanks!