Last modified: 2013-01-05 21:00:16 UTC
Interface messages which are used as column headers are sometimes very short, for example Mediawiki:Centralnotice-number-uses. The maximum length of this message is 5% of the table width, which on some screens and with some browsers I imagine is very short, maybe 6 or 7 letters? Because of this restriction, there are going to be some messages which cannot be translated into some languages, no matter how clever the translator is. I have opened a separate bug for the message discussed above, bug 39266. This bug is about the general design problem for interface tables, to enable localisation of column headings. Would it be possible to arrange it so that each column header has two messages attached? The second message would be optional, only used when there is a problem with the translated column header not fitting the available space. Then the message in the column header would be a reference letter or number and the second message would appear just above or just below the table, and start with the reference letter or number and give the title of the column, like other keys or legends, possibly also with a longer explanation of the column heading. Alternatively, is it possible to get rid of the constraints on column width? There was also a problem with the documentation for the message in the example above because for a long time the column width was not documented at translatewiki.net. So we translators had no idea that there was a maximum column width to the message. We need better documentation on messages which are column headings.
