Icons or other visual elements can also be problematic. For example, whereas an icon showing an open door may transparently capture the notion expressed by the corresponding command "Exit" in English, the transparency would be lost if the translator chose to translate that command into the target language using an equivalent that meant "Quit" or "Terminate."
Variables are another software element that may cause difficulties for translators. A variable is a character or string of characters that acts as a placeholder and is replaced by another, more meaningful string of characters when the relevant software is running. For example, in the sentence "The %s font is not available; the %s font will be substituted ," the two "%s" variables will be replaced by relevant text strings when the program is running (e.g., "The Times New Roman font is not, available; the Courier font will be substituted"). If a translator chooses to reorder the sentence to read "The %s font will be substituted because the %s font is not available," the program may not insert the variables in the correct place and the intended meaning will be distorted (e.g., "The Times New Roman font will be substituted because the Courier font is not available"). Variable substitution can also result in grammatical errors. For example, in an English sentence such as "The %s has been terminated," the "%s variable could be replaced at different times by strings such as "program," "service," or "installation" without causing any grammatical problems; however, in French, it is not as straightforward. A translation such as "Le %s a été arrêté" may work for the strings "programme" and "service," but it will not work for "installation," which requires that the article be changed from "Le" to "L" and that an agreement in gender be made (arrêtée).
Another localization issue that a translator must keep in mind is standardization. If a particular product belongs to a larger family of products, it may be necessary to standardize the terminology (e.g., to use "Exit" instead of "Quit"). These are just a few of the issues involved in software localization. For more information, readers are referred to works such as Esselink (2000), Fry (2000), and Corbolante and Irmler (2001).
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