[Python-ideas] Non-English names in the turtle module.

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 12:34 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org> wrote:
> Chris Angelico writes:
>
>  > +1. These modules could simply import a boatload of stuff from
>  > "turtle" under new names, which would make them fairly slim. Question:
>  > Should they start with "from turtle import *" so the English names are
>  > always available? It'd ensure that untranslated names don't get missed
>  > out, but it might be confusing.
>
> That would be pretty horrible, and contrary to the point of allowing
> the new user to learn algorithmic thinking in a small world using
> intuitively named commands.
>
> I would think the sensible thing to do is to is invite participation
> from traditional translation volunteers with something like
>
>   import turtle
>   from i18n import _
>   _translations = { 'turtle' : _('turtle'), ... }
>   for name in dir(turtle):
>     if name in _translations:
>       eval("from turtle import {} as {}".format(name, _translations[name]))
>     elif english_fallbacks_please:
>       eval("from turtle import {}".format(name))

Yeah, that'd be better than including all the original English names.
And _translations can be generated easily enough:

import turtle
print("{" + ", ".join("%r: _(%r)" % (n, n) for n in dir(turtle)) + "}")

Though the diffs would be disgusting any time anything in turtle changes.

ChrisA