Mark release descriptions in org.gnome.Software.appdata.xml as non-translatable
The rules for determining which translatable strings are extracted from data/appdata/org.gnome.Software.appdata.xml.in
to the translation template reside in metainfo.its
. However, that file is provided by two projects:
gettext:
/usr/share/gettext-<version>/its/metainfo.its
appstream:
/usr/share/gettext/its/metainfo.its
And the two variants are not identical. The gettext version of metainfo.its
currently excludes the strings in <releases/>
when extracting translatable strings from org.gnome.Software.appdata.xml
, while the appstream version includes those strings by default. Consequently, given the current size of org.gnome.Software.appdata.xml
, it makes quite a difference which of the two metainfo.its
versions is used when creating the translation template.
It seems like the gettext version of metainfo.its
is used when creating the POT in Damned Lies, and thus the strings within <releases/>
are not included, which makes sense. However, Ubuntu generates the POT file, and if the appstream version of metainfo.its
is available when doing so, we end up with bothering the translators with all the release description strings.
As from version 0.14.4 appstream offers to mark the descriptions as non-translatable via the translatable="no"
attribute. I would propose that we make use of that attribute in the org.gnome.Software.appdata.xml
file. This would be instantly helpful for Ubuntu, and would prevent surprises for the case the gettext version of metainfo.its
gets updated later.
Related bugs:
Ubuntu — https://launchpad.net/bugs/1927149
appstream — https://github.com/ximion/appstream/issues/315