The .uni translation file format was defined in cooperation with our translation agency. They wished for a very simple format that can be imported into their IT system with minimum effort. I know that XML is more common, but actually it is easier to read a uni file, because you don't need a parser at all. I do not agree that the format is confusing. It's just a UTF-16 text file where every line consists of Source text, tab sign, Target text and line break.
About translating the object texts: We usually don't use the option to export the Std texts from the CpStudio project. Instead, we use the TranslationUpdater that extracts the missing texts directly from the object repository and is also able to write them back to the OOD and OSD files. This makes it easy to decide what should be translated: Just put all the objects that should be translated into one directory and provide this directory as source for the TranslationUpdater.
If any translations are missing for BCI objects, please contact the Helpdesk. Even if we do not provide all translations, it makes sense to deliver them back to us so we can integrate them into the next object version. This way, the texts will be available for your next project without having to bother about the translations, again.
About the comment: I agree that the comment should be monolingual. I don't know why it has always been multilingual. The problem is that we cannot change this for compatibility reasons. The translation export does not know the meaning of any data field, it just collects all multilingual data. I don't see a chance to change this.
