Bug#763357: mate-desktop: Confusing translation (de) in Mate Desktop Environment

[G. Heine]

Package: mate-desktop
Version: 1.8.1+dfsg1-1
Severity: minor
Tags: l10n

Dear Maintainer,

first of all I don't know whether mate-desktop is the correct package for this
bug report because I don't know where MATE's localization is based. Sorry.

Now for the bug: starting with Mate 1.8 the German translation is confusing.
For years "desktop" has been translated with "Arbeitsfläche" in most systems,
not only Linux. Mate did the same until and including 1.6.
Starting with 1.8 the corresponding folder is no longer called ~/Arbeitsfläche
but ~/Schreibtisch. You can also find "Aussehen des Schreibtischs anpassen"
connected to "Erscheinungsbild" (appearance). In other places it is still
"Arbeitsfläche": you use "Arbeitsflächenumschalter" in the panel to switch
between workplaces.
The worst is using Caja: you click "Arbeitsfläche" under "Orte" (places) and
it will open ~/Schreibtisch while the title above calls it "Arbeitsfläche" (in
icon mode) or "Schreibtisch" (in text mode).

I noticed this behaviour in Mate 17 in May and it is still there in Debian
Testing in September.
This is a somewhat confusing and unnecessary change for the worse. In my
opinion you should stick with "Arbeitsfläche" or (if the "ä" after decades of
computer technology still causes problems) change it to "Schreibtisch"
completely. But please stay with one wording all over.

Regards



-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.16-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages mate-desktop depends on:
ii  hicolor-icon-theme    0.13-1
ii  libatk1.0-0           2.12.0-1
ii  libc6                 2.19-11
ii  libcairo2             1.12.16-5
ii  libfontconfig1        2.11.0-6.1
ii  libfreetype6          2.5.2-2
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0    2.30.8-1
ii  libglib2.0-0          2.40.0-5
ii  libgtk2.0-0           2.24.24-1
ii  libmate-desktop-2-17  1.8.1+dfsg1-1
ii  libpango-1.0-0        1.36.7-1
ii  libpangocairo-1.0-0   1.36.7-1
ii  libpangoft2-1.0-0     1.36.7-1
ii  libunique-1.0-0       1.1.6-5
ii  mate-desktop-common   1.8.1+dfsg1-1

mate-desktop recommends no packages.

mate-desktop suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information