Re: Web interface for translation for GNOME

[Gil Forcada <gforcada gnome org>]

Hi,

Sorry for not replying in-thread and just jumping here to dump my
ideas/thoughts on it...


So to be web-translation or not...

For me the important question here is if it's as an add-on or as a
complete and fixed part of it, I mean, could everyone keep their own way
of working of they must use this new way?

Most, if not all, of our translators in GNOME are also translating other
projects, be it KDE, GNU, apps hosted in Transifex, in Launchpad...

So (IMHO) the most important thing to do is to not get in their way.

If they want to set up their pootle instance and put together all their
GNOME, KDE, LXDE, Mozilla, LibreOffice translations to reuse the pootle
server, fine with me and great for them.

If they use regular D-L workflow (download the po file, translate,
re-upload and so on) fine by me and great for them.

Our user base (Free Software translators) is so diverse and different
from country to country[1] that is quite impossible to get everyone
happy.

On the other side, or even more important, if the developer base
(developers creating Free Software CAT tools) is so small (and on D-L
near to non-existent) I would not expect blue dreams coming true from
their side.

Probably I am talking trash here (and correct me please) but a team that
decides that it would be useful for them to have an online translation
tool could create a project on Launchpad or Transifex, do the
translations there and then just commit the translations to
git.gnome.org. Is that even possible?

Heck, even with the current git mirror on GitHub translators could edit
translations there...

With the above I mean that, please, let's not try to reinvent the wheel
(pootle, transifex and launchpad already provide online translations),
let's try to see how to cooperate, because with the amount of human
resources we have right now, I don't really see the point of debating
about having online translations on D-L.

If someone is coding it *right now*, sure, I will gladly review the
patches, try to understand them and push them, but if that's just a wish
list, the wish will probably have to wait...

Sorry for the long rant.

Happy translating!
Cheers,

[1] D-L comes from a tool created by the French team, still we just got
a mail from a small team as little as 2 translators which of course
wants to spend time translating not developing tools

El dc 28 de 08 de 2013 a les 12:42 +0200, en/na fr33domlover mailoo org
va escriure:
> Hello,
>
> Long time ago a web interface for translators was discussed:
>
> https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2005-March/msg00250.html
>
>  
>
> Since then many things have changed: The software evolved and projects
> began using web interfaces for translators. As a potential translator,
> I feel that spending bits of spare time on translation (even just as a
> way to relax, instead of zombie-browsing social networks) can be much
> easier if I have a simple web interface. I don't mind using a desktop
> app like GTranslator which I have installed, but an interface can make
> it easier to find files and send translations.
>
> Currently, translation requires that you read guides and understand
> how to find the files in a git repo, fetch them, generate POT files,
> fill in strings, commit the translation back to the repo, update the
> ChangeLog, etc. And this is just the simple case when everything works
> as expected.
>
> I have a feeling (maybe I'm wrong) that the need to learn the process
> scares off some users. Translation is relatively easy, and knowing the
> language is most of what you need. But without a staight-forward
> interface, less people help.
>
>  
>
> I'd like to suggest again (last time is 2005, see above) that Gnome
> gets a web interface for translators. Instead of just few technical
> people translating for a language, we could have much more. Of course,
> it may be possible to attract people in other ways, which are very
> welcome too :-]
>
>  
>
> fr33domlover
>
>  
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-i18n mailing list
> gnome-i18n gnome org
> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-i18n


-- 
Gil Forcada

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