Who speaks Frist: Human or Computer

[Dennis Baudys]

Am Montag, den 07.05.2012, 15:27 +0200 schrieb goof at coppernet.zm:
> Hi Dennis
> 
> 
> So in German, you just state an action to be performed as a way of
> avoiding the use of Du or Sie?

Yes. »Du« will _never_ be used. »Sie« will be avoided wherever possible
(with very few exemptions like dialog prompts and user instructions in
manuals etc.).

> When you see a menu item "Datei öffnen" does it give a sense that the
> human expects the computer to Open the file while the computer quietly
> goes ahead and carries out the request?

Exactly.

> Is there a distinction with social 'behaviour' in this manner of
> acting such that the people expect that this is only ok if dealing
> with a computer?

Correct. People do not talk like this to each other. This is only used
in interactions with machines (however this is a high standard that not
all translators of Software besides Ubuntu follow in the wild).

Regards,

-- 
Dennis Baudys

      email: thecondor at arcor.de
 GPG key-ID: E4A9FB08
fingerprint: CB9A 86FF 1C20 0426 3912
             0276 3A78 E23F E4A9 FB08

Prüfer im deutschen Ubuntu-Übersetzer-Team

  launchpad: ~thecondordb
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-translators/attachments/20120507/04afd26b/attachment.sig>