'User deleted' message needs context

[extendwings]

I found that _n( 'User deleted.', '%s users deleted.', $delete_count )(​wp-admin/users.php#L372) and _e( 'User deleted.' )(​wp-admin/network/users.php#L251) is conflicted. This causes strange message box in some languages:

To fix this _e( 'User deleted.' ) should be changed to _ex( 'User deleted.', 'network' )

[extendwings]

Modified version of wp-admin/network/users.php

[SergeyBiryukov]

I could not reproduce this on a clean install of Japanese or Russian package.

1. Are there any specific steps to reproduce?
2. Are you using a multilanguage plugin? Does it still happen with all plugins disabled and a default theme (Twenty Fourteen or Twenty Thirteen) activated?

[SergeyBiryukov]

OK, I was able to reproduce in network admin with Japanese language files. Investigating.

[SergeyBiryukov]

I don't think adding a context is a correct solution here.

According to ​GlotPress' locales.php and ​gettext documentation, Japanese doesn't have a distinction between a singular and plural form.

We have quite a few instances in core where singular and plural forms are different:

$message = sprintf( _n( 'User deleted.', '%s users deleted.', $delete_count ), number_format_i18n( $delete_count ) );

This doesn't seem like a valid use of _n().

It causes problems in Russian too. We have ​3 plural forms. The first form is used not just for 1, but also for 21, 31, 41, etc. 'User deleted' only makes sense for 1. For 21, 31, etc., the number should be included in the string, but it's still the first form.

I tried to address this previously in comment:12:ticket:15920 and on ​Polyglots, and ended up introducing a fourth plural form for Russian as a workaround. I managed to make it backwards compatible with the plural forms expression in GlotPress to import translations there (only the first three forms were imported), but still had to use Poedit to edit files and SVN to build packages.

I think the correct solution here would be to review all these instances and separate single item strings from strings with numbers:

if ( $delete_count > 1 ) {
	$message = sprintf( _n( '%s user deleted.', '%s users deleted.', $delete_count ), number_format_i18n( $delete_count ) );
} else {
	$message = __( 'User deleted.' );
}

[extendwings]

Yes, adding context is just workaround.
I think this (and other singular and plural problems) should be resolved in the process of ​this internationalization improvement posted by @nacin.

[DrewAPicture]

Sounds like this is a larger issue than just this one instance. Punting.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

We have quite a few instances in core where singular and plural forms are different:

$message = sprintf( _n( 'User deleted.', '%s users deleted.', $delete_count ), number_format_i18n( $delete_count ) );

This doesn't seem like a valid use of _n().

See also ​#meta764 for a similar issue in the plugin repository (already resolved).

[DrewAPicture]

@SergeyBiryukov: How would you like to proceed with this ticket? Should we commit the one workaround and handle the remaining issues in separate tickets, or would you rather punt and try to cover all of the cases in a future release?

28502.diff​ still applies.

[SergeyBiryukov]

28502.2.diff​ fixes all the invalid instances of _n() I've found in core, including the one from ticket description.

There's also an issue with 'One thought on “%2$s”' in bundled themes (similar to the one in theme-compat/comments.php here), I'll create a separate ticket for that once this patch get in.

Note that the removal of context in _nx( 'Theme deleted.', ..., 'network' ) is intentional. It was added in [17233] as a workaround for a similar conflicting strings issue and should no longer be necessary after this patch.

[ocean90]

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

28502.2.diff​ fixes all the invalid instances of _n() I've found in core, including the one from ticket description.

Can you please explain the change to wp-admin/edit.php? It doesn't make sense to me. :(

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to ocean90:

Can you please explain the change to wp-admin/edit.php? It doesn't make sense to me. :(

"it" vs. "them". "it" doesn't make sense for 21 :)

[ocean90]

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

"it" vs. "them". "it" doesn't make sense for 21 :)

OK, but why are singular and plural the same? Seems not to be the case for the others.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to ocean90:

OK, but why are singular and plural the same? Seems not to be the case for the others.

It shouldn't make a difference, since this form won't be displayed in English, and other languages would translate it according to their plural form rules, but I agree that consistency with other strings would be clearer. See 28502.3.diff​.

[DrewAPicture]

28502.3.diff​ still applies. Moving for commit consideration.

[ocean90]

I don't like 28502.3.diff​ at it current state.

Example: sprintf( _n( 'Theme enabled.', '%s themes enabled.', $_GET['enabled'] ), number_format_i18n( $_GET['enabled'] ) )
This looks valid since translators can/should translate Theme enabled. as %s theme enabled., if the singular string is used for other numbers.

The same is done in an example on ​https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Translating-plural-forms.html#Translating-plural-forms

msgid "One file removed"
msgid_plural "%d files removed"
msgstr[0] "%d slika je uklonjena"
msgstr[1] "%d datoteke uklonjenih"
msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"

The only issue is, that GlotPress/translate.wordpress.org will give you a dismissable warning about wrongly used placeholders since the original (Theme enabled.) doesn't include a placeholder. But this is not really a core issue, rather GlotPress.

I agree that the gnu.org example doesn't fit in all our cases, like 1 post not updated, somebody is editing it.. Maybe it makes sense to introduce a new wrapper function for _n() which supports $singular_one, $singular_one_or_more, $plural.

I also want to propose a change to strings like _n( 'Yes, Delete this theme', 'Yes, Delete these themes', $themes_to_delete ).
When ever we use _n() we should pass the number too, even it's not used in the English string:
sprintf( __( 'Yes, Delete this theme', 'Yes, Delete these themes', $themes_to_delete ), number_format_i18n( $themes_to_delete ). This will allow translators to change the strings based on there plural rules.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Basically, _n() should only be used for the same string with different numbers, not for different strings.

_n( '%d item', '%d items', $number ) is correct.

_n( 'One item', '%d items', $number ) is *kinda* correct, but there are some issues:

• 'One item' is not guaranteed to be used for exactly one item, but we treat it like it is.
• We could translate it to '%d item', but in some cases it's just not possible:
  • '%s post not updated, somebody is editing it' requires a different translation in Slavic languages when used for 1 vs. 21, it can't be the same string.
  • It also doesn't work for 'You have specified this user for deletion:', 'Delete Theme', etc.
• It's more user-friendly to see 'Theme deleted' for non-bulk actions than '1 theme deleted'.
• It causes string conflicts, see #16130 and this ticket.
• As noted above, GlotPress gives you a warning about placeholders mismatch.

So the fix is to make sure 'One item' is only used for exactly one item, not for 21 or 31, etc. You don't often delete exactly 21 users or update 21 posts, but when you do, you should see the correct string :)

The patch introduces this fix as a consistent pattern. I went through all the strings and patched those where the first form is different from the additional fourth form I added with Poedit years ago. This should allow me to ditch that fourth form and use GlotPress.

I just looked through all the changes again, and the only string that I wouldn't mind to remove is the one in wp-admin/network.php (authentication keys), since we know we're dealing with values less than 10 there. I've just included it for the sake of consistency.

Overall it's not that many changed strings, ~20 or so. Each new release generally has more than a hundred.

Replying to ocean90:

Example: sprintf( _n( 'Theme enabled.', '%s themes enabled.', $_GET['enabled'] ), number_format_i18n( $_GET['enabled'] ) )
This looks valid since translators can/should translate Theme enabled. as %s theme enabled., if the singular string is used for other numbers.

I don't agree :) If you're not performing a bulk action, it's more user-friendly to see 'Theme enabled' than '1 theme enabled'. I'd like to keep the strings as close to the originals as possible, without redundant numbers.

I also want to propose a change to strings like _n( 'Yes, Delete this theme', 'Yes, Delete these themes', $themes_to_delete ).
When ever we use _n() we should pass the number too, even it's not used in the English string:
sprintf( __( 'Yes, Delete this theme', 'Yes, Delete these themes', $themes_to_delete ), number_format_i18n( $themes_to_delete ). This will allow translators to change the strings based on there plural rules.

Initially I thought that might help, but actually it wouldn't. It means that in our translation we would have to include a number in all the strings on that screen:

• 'Delete Theme' => 'Delete %d Theme'
• 'This theme may be active on other sites in the network.' => 'This %d theme may be active on other sites in the network.'
• 'You are about to remove the following theme:' => 'You are about to remove the following %d theme:'
• 'Are you sure you wish to delete this theme?' => 'Are you sure you wish to delete %d theme?'
• 'Yes, Delete this theme' => 'Yes, Delete %d theme'

As noted above, including additional numbers like that is redundant and not user-friendly, and I'd like to avoid that. 28502.3.diff​ solves this in a more appropriate way.

[ocean90]

As noted above, including additional numbers like that is redundant and not user-friendly, and I'd like to avoid that. 28502.3.diff​ solves this in a more appropriate way.

Thanks for the explanations, just wanted to have them public too. :-)
Go ahead with 28502.3.diff​.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 31941:

Decouple strings where the singular and plural form are not just the same string with different numbers, but essentially two different strings.

This allows for using proper plural forms in languages with more than two forms, and also resolves string conflicts when the same string is present in both singular and plural form.

fixes #28502.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 31951:

After [31941], use the decoupled strings from WP_Customize_Manager::register_controls() on the Menus screen.

see #28502.

[ocean90]

We've missed trunk/src/wp-admin/network/site-themes.php@31973#L158​. The needed strings are already in trunk/src/wp-admin/network/themes.php@31973#L270​.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 32029:

After [31941], use the decoupled strings from wp-admin/network/themes.php in wp-admin/network/site-themes.php as well.

fixes #28502.

[netweb]

Via @bjornjohansen in #polglots on Slack ​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/polyglots/p1428177381000724

In 25802.4.diff fixes two string instances from Yes, Delete this theme to Yes, delete this theme

Props to bjornjohansen please :)

[ocean90]

Replying to netweb:

Via @bjornjohansen in #polglots on Slack ​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/polyglots/p1428177381000724

Please create a new ticket for this. The string was introduced in [17101] and we have some similar strings too:

• No, Return me to the plugin list
• Yes, Delete these files and data
• Yes, Delete these files

(​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/polyglots/p1428398252000768)

[ocean90]

In 32084:

Theme Compat: Make string translatable and add translator comments. Added in [31941].

props dimadin.
see #28502.
fixes #31921.

[pavelevap]

@SergeyBiryukov: I do not understand change in wp-admin/edit.php.

Why was new string "1 post not updated, somebody is editing it." added? There was "%s post not updated, somebody is editing it." which was sufficient?

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to pavelevap:

Why was new string "1 post not updated, somebody is editing it." added? There was "%s post not updated, somebody is editing it." which was sufficient?

See comment:17 :) Without that change, in Russian and some other languages, "somebody is editing it" would be displayed for both 1 and 21, 31, etc. The correct form would be "it" for 1 and "them" for 21, 31, etc.

[pavelevap]

Sorry, got it. I did not realize possible change from "it" to "them" and looked only at number which did not make sense for me :-)

[ocean90]

In 34521:

Plugins: Don't use _n() for singular/plural strings which have no placeholder for a number.

Fixes #33239.
See #28502.

[ocean90]

In 35611:

About: Don't use _n_noop() for singular/plural strings which provide no placeholder for a number.

This allows for using proper plural forms in languages with more than two forms.

Props SergeyBiryukov.
Fixes #34307.
See #28502.