Re: Making it easier on translators

[Pablo Saratxaga <pablo mandrakesoft com>]

Kaixo!

On Mon, Nov 20, 2000 at 02:17:25PM -0100, Hector Garcia wrote:

> I have seen some things that I considers to be a problem.  These are
> related to the translators (I am a translator myself) of the gnome

> Problems:
> 
> * You have to learn to use CVS (yes it is very simple, but not to

That isn't really needed; you always can find someone with CVS access and
ask him to do the cvs stuff (I do it in behalf of several translators)
(PS: note that CVS itself is not always the problem, sometimes it is the
available size on the hard disks of translators; whole Gnome sources are huge)

> Possible solution:
> 
> * Create an automated system to generate the .po files for every
> language, that send a letter to translator when a certain number of
> fuzzy or undone translation are found in the file (you should be able to
> conf this)

As a coordinator of translations for Linux-Mandrake distribution I'm faced with
the same problems; what I did is, on the status page (similar to the one of
Gnome, which has been my inspiration) I put a link for all percentages, so
people can get the given po file; and for not yet translated languages, the
"-" in the status pages is a link to the pot file.
For that I included the pot files in all our CVS branches, yes it is some
more size, but not that much, and it allows anyone at any time to get just
the pot file and translate it.
This can be done even from a Windows machine with a browser (don't laugh,
there are some places in the world where internet connectivity is a real
luxury for individuals, and translators often can do it only at work, where
Windows machines are used).

I also set up some scripts to automatically merge, check and if needed send
the po files to translators when updates are needed.
(The scripts use a list of translators that agree on doing like that, there
is also another list for translators wanting only to be noticed (only a mail
is sent, no po attached))

> * To let developers set a translation to be most wanted because a
> release is due soon.

Mmh, I don't really understand this sentence.

> I believe that with this solution we drop down the entry point for
> people to help in gnome and we will have more translators and more
> language in more modules.

That is indeed a very important thing; there is a lot of people able and
willing to help but without real computer background; making it easy for them
can only increase the translations coverage.

-- 
Ki ça vos våye bén,
Pablo Saratxaga

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