The use of Esperanto infinitives in use interfaces is not a mistake. It is often debated, even hotly, if it's better to use infinitives or imperatives en Esperanto for "View", "Save", "Open" etc. in program interfaces, and there are good arguments for both styles.
I myself however believe strongly that infinitives are better i most cases. Often it is quite unclear if the English "View", "Save", "Open" etc. are infinitives or imperatives. They can be understood in both ways. A menu item saying "Open", can be seen as meaning "Click here if you want to OPEN (a file)" - thus "Open" is an infinitive. But it can also be seen as something that the user "says" to the program when he clicks on that item: "Program, OPEN (a file)!" - thus "Open" is an imperative. For me the former interpretation is the most natural and logical one. That is why I prefer to translate such cases with infintives in Esperanto. Imperatives are better used only when it's clearly a case of the program (or rather the programmer) telling the user to do or not to do something. That is not so with a typical menu item like "Save". Neither the program nor the programmer is telling the user to save anything. It (or he/she) is merely presenting an option, a possibility, that the user can use or ignore as he or she wishes. That is best expressed with an infinitive (the most neutral form). I just checked the German translation of OpenOffice.org. It uses infinitives in such cases. I am a member of the team that is translating OpenOffice.org into Esperanto. We use infinitives. As for my Esperanto credentials: I am the author of the leading Esperanto reference grammar: "Plena Manlibro de Esperanta Gramatiko", also available for free on the Internet: "http://bertilow.com/pmeg/";. I am a member of the Esperanto Academy: "http://akademio-de-esperanto.org/";. -- Wrong usage of infitive case instead of imperative case in verbs - almost everywhere! https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/66223 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is the bug contact for Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
