[Freeciv-Dev] L10n: get_nation_name - /only/ used as an attribute?

[Sini Ruohomaa <s1071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

A translation-related question: is get_nation_name (returns eg.
"Singaporean") /only/ called as an attribute or is it used anywhere to
refer to one person of that nationality?
  In other words, are all the contexts of the form ("The %s ship has
arrived.", foo->get_nation_name), or is there also a chance of getting a
("That %s I met yesterday was a really nice person.",
foo->get_nation_name)?

A variable/function-naming related rant:
There is some unclarity with what the functions referring to
get_nation_name "return". When we translate nationalities, there's always
two fields: get_nation_name (eg. Singaporean) and get_nation_name_plural:
(eg. Singaporeans). The confusion rises from 1) English often having the
very same word for both 'one Singaporean (that is, a person)' and the
attribute form 'a Singaporean ship (an adjective-like word)', and at best
one word for all three (French ship, one French, many French); and
2) referring to the two fields as 'name' and 'plural'.

I've been going through the contexts, and it seems that the "nation name"
is actually the "plural" field in rulesets, and the "name" field would be
better off to be called "attribute", because otherwise it can easily be
confused with the opposite of the plural. (My nation: the Singaporeans,
not the Singaporean.)

I managed to find an example in English: a confused turk(ish).ruleset.
Is:        name=Turk,    plural=Turks.
Should be: name=Turkish, plural=Turks.
(Assuming Turk is a singular of Turks and not a special way of writing
'Turkish'.)

Imagine for a moment that get_nation_name actually returns the name of the
nation = Turkey.
  Then try to translate things like "%s view:" and "The %s spaceship has
vanished in a puff of logic.", where both call the function. Can't you
hear the clucking already?

--Sini Ruohomaa, hoping three rewrites made the mail at least half clear ;)