Is there any interest in localizing term delimiters in git messages?

[Alexander Shopov <ash@kambanaria.org>]

Hello all,

Is there any interest in being able to change the delimiters of the
changeable terms in git messages?

Typical example:
ORIGINAL
msgid "  (use \"git rm --cached <file>...\" to unstage)"

TRANSLATION
msgstr ""
"  (използвайте „git rm --cached %s ФАЙЛ…“, за да извадите ФАЙЛа от индекса)"

The important part are the `<' and `>' delimiters of the term "file"

Instead of using them - I omit them and capitalize the term. As if `<'
and `>' are declared as localizable and then I translate them as `',
`'

This has the following benefits:
1. The translation gets shorter
2. We skip potentially dangerous shell characters (<> redirect IN/OUT)
3. Readability improves for some strings, ex:
- git pack-objects [<options>] <base-name> [< <ref-list> | < <object-list>]
- git mailinfo [<options>] <msg> <patch> < mail >info

On the other hand - this can increase the maintenance burden of
messages and tests and the shortening benefit is applicable to
languages using capitalization or some other form of letter changing
that preserves readability (I understand there are many languages with
lots of speakers that are not like that). They might decide to convey
`<' and `>' as `«', `»' to get benefits 2 and 3.

So I am asking - is there any interest from other localizers to have
such a feature? Would the additional maintenance be OK for the
developers?

It is possible that no one besides me is interested in this - in which
case I will rework the Bulgarian translation as:
- More and more messages containing only the term automatically add
the `<' and `>'
- I need to keep adding smudge rules to the git-po-helper tool
(https://github.com/git-l10n/git-po-helper).

Kind regards:
al_shopov