Change in the documentation of the Format function (LO BASIC)

l10n
#1

Hello,

I noticed that in documentation of the Format function, the name of the
first parameter had been changed from "Number" to "expression". (Starts
around
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textsbasicshared/bg/?checksum=b7bf473e14ccdc22,
tens of strings are affected).

Why this change? The Format function does not convert an *expression* to a
string, it actually does convert a *number*; Format (1 + 2 + 3) returns
"6", not "1 + 2 + 3". It does not care about how the number is produced
before being passed to it. The next segments mention things like "if
*expression* contains a digit in this position" and "where *expression*
appears in the *format* code" which do not make sense; the thing that
contains a digit at position X to be formatted is the *number* produced by
the expression and being formatted by the function; the expression itself
cannot appear anywhere in the format code.

If we mean this naming to convey the idea that any argument to any function
call may be the result of an expression nested in the call, we should
change all arguments of all functions to read "numeric_expression",
"start_date_expression", "format_code_expression", etc. It appears to me
that a better solution would be to have a general explanation about nesting
expressions on an introductory page about programming in Basic.

If the reader is unfamiliar with basic programming concepts, either name
may confuse them: "number" may be misunderstood to mean only literal
numbers (1, 7.68, .78E5) and "expression" may be misunderstood to mean that
the function actually formats expressions. If the reader is familiar with
nesting expressions in function calls, they would expect the parameter name
to denote the role of the respective value in the calculation, not the way
it may be produced before passing it to the function.

As a quick fix, maybe changing the parameter to something like
"numericvalue" (following the latest convention of "all lowercase, no
spaces/underscores" for the parameter names) would be slightly better than
both "number" and "expression"?

Best regards,
Mihail

#2

Hi all,

Could you give some inputs on these changes to Mihail. Please keep the
l10n list in copy as most of the translators are not subscribed to this
list.
Thanks a lot!
Cheers
Sophie

#3

Hi Mihail,

Alain asked me to post this answer he was not able to send via Nabble:

Hi Mihail,

The rationale behind this change is detailed in
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=141474 which I
invite you to read thoroughly

VBA Format help doc -
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/language/reference/user-interface-help/format-function-visual-basic-for-applications

Your recommendations for an increased expressiveness of parameter names
are highly valid. However libO Basic keyword names support - aka VBA
named arguments - combined with LibO Basic compatibility with VBA
prevents from changing parameter names to the extent you suggest.

In the case of 'Format function', this leads to insert 'expression' and
'format' as "compulsory" parameter names as well as introducing multiple
occurrences of literals in the help page.

In order to better describe what 'Numeric expression' stands for, it is
possible to provide extra Basic scripts that'll illustrate this terminology.
Besides, description improvements for parameters are more than welcome!

Alain

PS: One may expect more Basic functions page updates intended to reflect
'exact' keyword names.

Cheers
Sophie

#4

Hi Sophie,

Thanks for relaying my question, Alain's explanation clarifies the matter.

I didn't consider that parameter names can be used as keywords in Basic.

This would also mean that in contrast to parameter names of Calc functions,
parameter names for Basic functions should not be translated.

Cheers,
Mihail