26 bugs in the interface and localization of Visual Studio 2010 Rus

Frankly, I was somewhat surprised when I read in the announcement of a contest of articles on Visual Studio 2010 Rus that "... articles with an overview of software errors or interface translation errors into Russian are also allowed to participate in it". Can it really be possible to write a critical article that will fall into the competition and will qualify for something?

Well, let's try!


I will say right away: I consider Visual Studio a very good, high-quality product, with a very small number of bugs. This is my daily working tool for almost ten years and I do not know of any other IDE of similar power. But, as they say, "Plato is my friend, but the truth is more precious!" Go.
')

Bug number 1. Installation

1. So, download the studio , set it up, and immediately, during the installation process, we enjoy this window:


On the face of non-compliance with the size of the buttons under the localized labels. You can understand - “Restart now” is shorter than “Restart now” by 9 characters (almost 2 times), and MSDN recommendations recommend reserving 30% of the buttons for localization needs. But anyway a blooper. And this window during the installation appears at least twice.

Bugs № 2-12. Settings window

We put the studio, run it, climb the first thing in the settings (I always do that). Here we have something to look at:


The inscription is cut off and an ellipsis is inserted, although the text would fit completely on the label (see the red text with a similar inscription).


Part of the dropboxes with a choice of Boolean expressions in English, part - in Russian. And we are not talking about the settings of any third-party plug-ins, or, say, different programming languages. Everything is basic IDE functionality.


Overlay checkboxes. Guilty, I think, the second checkbox, which occupies only one line in the English version.


Strictly speaking, this is not a bug. Just wondering why it was impossible to make the left list 5-6 pixels wider, getting rid of the scrolling. Moreover, this can be done by reducing the width of the right list (in both Russian and English versions, the length of phrases allows you to do this).


As many as 2 bugs - an incorrect transfer of the word “byte” (surprise! It turns out the word “byte” can be transferred!) And the overlay of the checkbox on the button.


Again, 2 bugs - different alignment of two-line labels relative to the checkbox (in the center and on the top line) on the same tab and different size of combo boxes with exactly the same content.


Unnecessary scroll elements. Why vertical is needed - it’s not at all clear (there’s nothing below the checkbox "To have directives ..."), why horizontal is needed, you can still guess (the word "compiler" doesn’t fit), but, first, after removing the scroll, it almost fits, secondly, I can formulate this checkbox with 3 different shorter phrases.


When you open tabs, similar to that shown in the screenshot, the position of the horizontal scroll slider automatically jumps to the middle of the scroll bar. Thus, you always have to move it to the left in order to read the name of the checkbox or change its position. There are a lot of such tabs.

Bugs number 13-16. Menu

It is not clear why there are no three points near the item “Publish Project Name”? After all, a dialog box opens. I thought it was that an external utility is being launched (then no dots are set), but no - this is part of the shell. I also thought that this was a wizard, and not an ordinary dialogue, but there are many dots near other wizards (for example, import and export settings). And I do not understand why “Run the analysis of the code in the Name of the Project” and not “Run the analysis of the code FOR the Name of the Project”.


Of the three similar actions in the context menu of the project, two are called a verb and one is the noun. And it is even more strange that in the main menu of the program all three are verbs (see the screenshot above). How did that happen? I also did not understand why only ENTER and SPACE were translated from all the keys in the hotkeys. All Alt, Ctrl, Tab, Ins, Esc, etc. remained by themselves, all shortcuts were left with Latin letters, but the space and input were translated into Russian. I did not consider this a bug, I just wonder why it happened.


This is not a bug at all, but a stupid cavil. And there is nothing to read this paragraph. But I'll write it anyway :). There are two subitems in the menu item, which are hung on the “Alt + P” hotkeys. See the two letters "P" underlined? It would seem that you can ignore such a trifle at all, but I can already see the surprise of hot-keen fans and I can estimate the script of some automatic build / testing tripped on duplicate hotkeys. Especially since in this case free letters, on which one could hang a point, are quite enough.

Bugs number 17-19. Performance wizard

The same question is answered in 3 completely different forms. Two points answer the question “What will happen?”, One - the question “What is doing?” And one to the question “What needs to be done?”. Ugly. Also, pay attention to the inscription “Page. 1 of 3 "in the title bar. It seemed everything would be fine. Click "Next" and see already:

2 out of 4! Moreover, we return to the previous page:

And here is 1 of 4! There is nothing permanent in this world!


The performance wizard suddenly became some kind of mysterious "Performance Explorer." In the same dialogue.

Bug number 20. reference

This is how the help page looks like, which opens in my latest Firefox from the Help item in the main menu of the program:

Moreover, hieroglyphs instead of letters are found not only on this page and not only in Firefox.

Bugs number 21-22. Solution Explorer window

First, why is it "Solution Explorer", and not "Solution Explorer"? It is always one in it. Yes, and in the English version of the word "Solution" in the singular. Secondly, why “projects: 0”, “projects: 1”, “projects: 2”, and not “1 project”, “2 projects”, etc. The English version does not hesitate to add the plural: “1 project”, “2 projects” and even “Empty solution”. Just do not about the complexity of the Russian language - this is just one if, which was already written in the English version of the studio.

Bug # 23 Project Properties Window

Mostly pleasing to the eye, the correct translation acquires a somewhat southerly hue of pronunciation and the “Active Configuration” becomes the “Active Configuration”, and the “Active Platform” becomes the “Active Platform”. Wow, daragoi, what a bug!

Bugs № 24-25. Software Quality Improvement Program

Software quality improvement programs try to explain to the user with the whole look of their dialog box how much these improvements are really necessary and how it is difficult for a user to do without it. After all, the leibs on group boxes will climb in the dialogs, and the lines of leading cannot be maintained. In general, well, you can not choose "No, I will not participate!"

Bug # 26 Utilities help

It was somewhat strange against the background of a fully localized studio and utility, output of console files and error messages, studio help, a very significant part of MSDN, etc. see the localization of the help utility in the state "and the horse did not roll." How so? Those utilities after all - one, two and all. And help each with 3 pages. Trifle in essence, but the feeling of integrity and completeness of the product spoiled.


I wish good luck to all users and developers of Visual Studio 2010 Rus, do not let all these little things spoil your impression of an overall great product.

Upd. In the comments often enough flashes the thought about the uselessness of the Russian version of the studio. They say that the pros perfectly understand the English and the Russian version only confuses them. As a counter argument, I would like to tell a life story.
I once worked as a teacher of computer science in school + conducted in-depth courses there. Computer science in it began with the 5th grade. These children are 11-12 years old. These are children who began to learn English only in the same year. So, if the programs we studied had a Russian interface, it was easy for the children. On the fly, children assimilated the concepts of files and folders, they easily understood what “open”, “save” means, etc. They used these words in conversational speech and dialogue among themselves. They understood what was going on. If the program was only in English, then everything that it consists of was perceived as a kind of magic. Children memorized the names of the buttons and often wrote / misplaced them. Working with the program turned into “shamanism” in the spirit of “pressing a button with such barbs, then with such ones”. Talking with children about the program was simply unrealistic.
So for such children, such localization initiatives are just a holiday. And, if you suddenly thought of something in the spirit of “what about a goat bayan?” (In the sense of why 11-year-old children are a studio), then you are mistaken. Children at this age are already well able to read, count, write, know the basic arithmetic operations, and after all, let's be honest, nothing more is needed to write a very large class of programs.