[xliff-tools] Another question on PO and XLIFF

[Yves Savourel]

Hi all,

First, thanks for all the feedback, it's enlightening.

> becomes:
> 
> <source xml:space='preserve'>Line1
>  line2
> Line3
> </source>
>
> This representation is missing 6 characters in the 
> <source> element, 3 '\' and 3 'n'. 

I'm not sure: What is wrong with it if, when merging, the filter puts \n for each line-feed found in the trans-unit? (the same way
it replaced the \n by real line-feed when extracting) I would get back the original PO text, wouldn't I?

While:

> <trans-unit xml:space="preserve">
>
> Line 1\n line 2\n 
> Line 3.\n</trans-unit>

Would, with most tools, generate clumsy segments.

Sure, when \n is used only for wrapping a paragraph because of a width display limitation (vs. marking forced line-breaks)
converting to real line-feed won't solve the re-formatting problem, but neither will keeping \n.

I guess one of the aspects of the problem has to do with segmentation and the translation tool one uses. Many tools won't work at
the trans-unit level, but at the, lower, segment level, bringing a different class of problems.

As Asgeir pointed out, this is beyond PO and happens in many software messages. I was just wondering if we had a specific
recommendation for PO. I guess it seems to be the same as for other formats: each tool may end up having its own way of trying to
address the issue.

Cheers,
-yves