Would it be possible to edit the "Source string description"?

[rtsisyk]

One of our translators was wondering if the "Source string description" field can be edited via the UI for Android/iOS formats. We have the "Edit base file" option enabled, but it doesn’t seem to affect that field.

[nijel]

You can edit explanation in Weblate, source string description is only parsed from the translation files.

[the-phinet]

Is there a reason for this design decision? We're using .po files, so they don't have explanations embedded. It would be nice to treat explanations and descriptions similarly in this case.

Currently I'm copying the descriptions to the explanations, and then deleting the stale descriptions in the source file. It's a workaround for people who use the interface, but I'd really like to allow people to edit the explanations from git, the same as descriptions.

[emmapeel2]

The descriptions are on the .pot file, see for example https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/d-i/-/blob/26ddc1a0bad0708073d037f25d3eed05e8ebe72b/packages/po/sublevel1/template.pot#L3117 that can be seen as description in Weblate (https://hosted.weblate.org/translate/debian-installer/sublevel1/am/?checksum=d54db02bd24b4922)

That is a comment added on the source file, that gettext inserted on the .pot file because it is just above the string (on the source file).

See the gettext documentation on adding comments for translators