From kde-i18n-doc Wed Sep 18 19:54:52 2002 From: Lauri Watts Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 19:54:52 +0000 To: kde-i18n-doc Subject: Re: translation gUI in Piemonteis X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-i18n-doc&m=103237903312701 =2D----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Monday 16 September 2002 23.12, Gaute Hvoslef Kvalnes wrote: > At least, if a language is used =ABofficially=BB, and especially in schoo= ls, > any translation effort should be welcomed. The same rules as for other > languages would apply, with regard to completeness and upkeep, of course. > On the other hand, if a language is merely a dialect or a =ABfun=BB proje= ct, I > don't think KDE should spend resources on it. (But of course, as this is > free software, anyone can maintain a translation outside of KDE.) I agree. It's not wasting resources, because people who are set on=20 translating KDE to piemontes likely won't turn around and join the Italian= =20 team when their efforts are rebuffed, they will continue to argue their cas= e. =20 It's like the argument that pops up on the kde lists sometimes about "Why i= s=20 there people making eye candy icons, when khtml has bugs in?" - the answer,= =20 because the people who *can* make eye candy icons, are not the ones who *ca= n*=20 fix khtml bugs, so advancement in one has nothing to do with the other. Much more to the point is, do the prospective translators understand what a= =20 job they have set themselves, that it is ongoing, continually growing, and= =20 that it will require long term commitment. I think Thomas is on the right= =20 track there, I think the bar to getting into CVS may need to be set higher. I have a personal stake in seeing these kinds of languages get some real=20 support, the language I spoke at home as a child has been started many time= s=20 in CVS, and never come even close to finished, because there are not the=20 resources. I can't help, I wasn't allowed to speak it when I went to schoo= l,=20 and now I no longer can fluently, although I can read enough to get the gis= t=20 of things. Things have changed at home in NZ since I was a child, and Maor= i=20 is now a full national language, children learn it in school, there are=20 native language immersion schools, and all government publications must be= =20 published in both English and Maori. I don't see there being a Maori KDE i= n=20 the near future though. A native language KDE might go a long way to helping people like me, it's=20 ironic that I now speak the language of my adopted country better than my o= wn=20 native language, and that one of the reasons I'm comfortable with Swedish i= s=20 that there is an excellent and complete translation of KDE in it. Nothing= =20 like immersion to reinforce language skills. Whether it's Saami or nynorsk or Piemontes or occitan, if open source doesn= 't=20 do it, nobody ever will, commercial software houses just don't have any=20 interest in a minority language spoken by a smattering of people in a hard = to=20 place corner of the world. In less than 30 years though, Maori has gone fr= om=20 an almost banned and dying language, to a vibrant and living one - perhaps= =20 there's hope for all those other small languages after all. Regards, =2D --=20 Lauri Watts KDE Documentation: http://i18n.kde.org/doc/ KDE on FreeBSD: http://freebsd.kde.org/ =2D----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE9iNoM/gUyA7PWnacRAtnOAJ4zM2OirxWl7vtoLZNNEDrj6Ipb0wCgmBmV G0g2P6qshjX/7WN8urbUCVk=3D =3DQy2M =2D----END PGP SIGNATURE-----