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List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: Improving KDE with translators
From:       Jeroen Wijnhout <wijnhout () science ! uva ! nl>
Date:       2004-08-20 8:00:47
Message-ID: 200408201000.47297.wijnhout () science ! uva ! nl
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On Friday 20 August 2004 00:03, Rinse de Vries wrote:
> Op donderdag 19 augustus 2004 16:25, schreef Jeroen Wijnhout:
> > Aaaarrrggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
> >
> > That is solved by the translator running the program of course!
>
> Not really, since there are a few problems:
> 1 - somethimes the string is not visible for the translator, because it is
> in a section that is inaccessible for him/her.
> 2 - the application is too unstable to run (to fix this we should not
> release translations with a .0-release)
> 3 - it's hard to figure out which string is used where in the application
> 4 - somethimes developers reuse strings in different contexts (wich can be
> solved with a comment about noun-verb, because then they are forced to use
> different strings for different contexts)
>
> If I look at the Dutch translation: kde is translated 'blind' during the
> first few months.
> As soon as KDE is stable enough, the translators install it and start using
> the apps to check if their translations make sense.

This seems like a good approach to me. My point is that you cannot be sure you 
translated the strings correctly if you don't understand the context. It can 
look very good in the .po file, but plain silly in the application. I 
understand the translation teams do not have the manpower to check _every_ 
string. But they should run the app at the very least, to do a superficial 
check.

> Also the developers can help the translators improving their translations.
> For instance by using/checking the translation of their applications into
> their language.
> there are quite a lot Dutch developers that develop kde applications, but
> only a very few of them ever checked the Dutch translation of their
> programms.

Errr, hmm, yeah I guess I'm guilty ;-)

> Checking/using your programs in your own language does not only improve the
> translations, but also gives the developers an idea about the problems a
> translator can run into while translating the application.

best,
Jeroen

-- 
Kile - KDE Integrated LaTeX Editor
http://kile.sourceforge.net
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