Hypnotic Waves by Tearsandrain

Wave essentially brings together all the forms of online communication we already use — email, chat, wikis, blogs, and so on — and combines them into a single (mostly?) open architecture.

I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around what this will mean. As a software developer, I can see some tremendous ways that this can help me. For example, when I release a new version of one of my software programs, I need to pull in information from several different sources — bug tracker, build information, screen shots, updates to documentation — and push this information out in many different formats — blog announcement, update docs, update download page, "what's new" list, etc.

Right now, I have a kind of hodgepodge of scripts that automate some of this for me, but there's still a lot of manual work. It seems that Wave would make it possible for me to manage all this information centrally, and push it all out in the proper formats/places with a single operation. That would make publishing software updates a lot easier!

In addition to making this process easier, Wave could also let me improve things. For example, it would make it easier to keep docs up to date and complete. Users could comment on the docs, ask questions, or ask for more information on a certain subject. Features listed in a blog post could include links to the relevant sections of the documentation. In short, it seems like Wave could make the work of creating good documentation a lot easier, and with more powerful results.

On the other hand, it seems like the real power of Wave will depend on adoption. Obviously, the more people using Wave, the more useful it will be. And since a lot of people are still using IE6, the requirement for html5 support is going to be a pretty big hurdle. Also, how many people are going to give up their beloved Facebook/Instant Messenger/whatever for this new, slightly strange platform? Google's record for putting out kind of cool-looking betas and letting them wither on the vine is not too hot.

So while I'm excited about the potential of Wave, I'm also going to wait and see before uninstalling my email client.

This is horrible news for all the big software companies with huge patent portfolios, because now their IP is going to be worth a lot less. But it's great news for small developers like me, who have to worry about getting sued by some company with deep pockets because they've patented a "buy now" button, or page scrolling in a document, or even hyperlinks.

The Fifth Edition of the Green Goddess gives the following translation for 画面 in a computer context:

【電算】 〔コンピューターや携帯電話などの表示面〕 a (display) screen.

This, unfortunately, is incorrect for most of the cases where the word 画面 is used in the wild.

The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications says that the term screen refers to "…the graphical portion of a visual output device" (i.e. the monitor's display area). In most of the cases where I see 画面, however, it's being used for one of these other meanings.

For example, this page has the following text:

ホームページ閲覧中に「セキュリティ警告」画面が表示されます

This, of course, is referring to the "Security Warning" dialog box that appears when the page tries to install software on your computer.

Here's another example, where a login page calls itself a
ログイン画面.

And a final example, where the main window is called the
メイン画面.

Conclusion

What all this boils down to is that you can't translate the term 画面 mechanically. You've got to look at the context, and see how the word's being used. Gee, you mean we've got to pay attention to context in software translation too? I thought this was supposed to be easy!

About Count Anything

Count Anything is a free program for Windows that counts words, characters, and Asian characters in a variety of formats, including MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint, as well as HTML,
XML, text, and others. See the documentation for more information.