[pewu]

I'm a software developer on a daily basis, whose native language is not English. In this environment, pretty much all keywords are in English and having this perspective, I automatically treat words like "trash", "spam" as just keywords - it would seem weird to have them localized. I have never thought of these words to be an issue for an English speaker. I do agree though that words in en_US may sound weird for somebody speaking other dialects of en_*.

[edent]

After many years of HTML development, I still spell `colour` with a "U"!

I suspect it is easier if everything is a foreign language to you. But it's really easy to trip up between eb_GB and en_US because of their similarities.

[tobr]

So are you arguing that CSS should also be localized? (In my opinion that would clearly be a terrible idea, and most of the reasons why apply to Gmail as well)

[edent]

I mean, it would be lovely if HTML (invented by a British English speaker) used en_GB throughout. I think it's only "dialogue" which is misspelled in HTML5. Although the obsolete "centre" element is also wrong ;-)

You might enjoy this article on if PHP were British. https://aloneonahill.com/blog/if-php-were-british/

[rswail]

Well I much prefer as an Australian to develop programs, not programmes. My analog to digital converters work just as well without vaguely French "ue" extensions.

Single items of information are still data, not datum.

Among many things in HTTP/HTML/etc that bug me is "referer".

[tobr]

> "referer"

At least that’s equally wrong for everyone.

[tomjakubowski]

the webster in me thinks that's how the word ought to be spelled, maybe web developers will be the vanguard.

what's unfortunate is that http is self-consciously inconsistent about the spelling: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Re...

[aequitas]

Same with localized functions in eg Excel or Google Spreadsheets. I've grown so accustomed to the English terms it hard to remember or guess my local variants.

[nottorp]

Yep, I'll never understand why you should localize IT terms. You only make UIs more confusing.

Do localize english text but not the digital concepts.

But then, my native language uses "mouse" (the english word as-is) for the computer peripheral, not the word we use for the mouse animal. There were some silly nationalists who wanted to translate everything, but they got laughed at so much that all such proposals died.

[jbob2000]

In Canada, we have laws that penalize our companies for not having "accurate" French translations. At my company, I notice this makes the managers very concerned, so they don't take any chances on translations.

We also get a lot of "french language warriors" who call our call centers and complain about ANY mistake they can find. One that pops up frequently is if we use the incorrect punctuation mark (" as opposed to « and » for French), which happens a lot if a naïve marketing manager is copying and pasting text without regard for the format.

[emilecantin]

We didn't get to keep speaking our language by silently accepting whatever the Anglos were willing do do (historically not much). Forgive us if we have to be forceful sometimes.

[jbob2000]

I'm just noting the dichotomy between a non-english speaker saying "just use the english IT terms!" and other non-english speakers essentially saying "don't erase my language!".

[emilecantin]

It depends on the geopolitical context. Here in Québec we've been under constant threat of losing our language since the annexation of Nouvelle-France by the British in the 1700s. Google "speak white" if you want to know the kind of assault our language has been under even as recently as the 1960s. Even today, there's a growing number of lazy shop owners in Montréal who just don't bother serving customers in French.

I'm guessing the situation is radically different in, say, Latin America. They can probably afford to use english IT terms. We can't, because it won't stop at IT.

[nottorp]

File is called Fichier? :)

As I said, actual text is nice to be translated, and translated right... but not the menus and stuff like that.

[emilecantin]

Yes: https://imgur.com/G15wThQ

[rightbyte]

"Mouse", "trash" has good native words in all languages I know. It sounds quote silly mixing in english when you speak.

[nottorp]

From my non native point of view, "mouse" is the computer peripheral while a "șoarece" will steal your cheese.

[rightbyte]

Sure it might be nice with new words to have a distinction between animal mice and computer mouse.

I am not dogmatically against using english words if they are commonly used but I am against avoiding native words becouse it sounds abit like corparate speak to me.

[NikolaeVarius]

And yet, in at least 2 Asian languages, they get over it