[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: [Idea] Translation manager
From:       Rinse de Vries <rinsedevries () kde ! nl>
Date:       2004-09-07 21:59:37
Message-ID: 200409072359.37516.rinsedevries () kde ! nl
[Download RAW message or body]

Op donderdag 7 oktober 2004 19:04, schreef Tom Albers:
> I've got an idea for a new kde-project. I've discussed it with a few people
> (Cornelius, Rinse, Bram) and since they react positive, I have made up this
> overview so everyone can comment on the idea. What I really need is a
> developer willing to write the code and maintaining that code in the
> future.

I think it is a great idea.
The benefit of translations is that it is plain simple to update them: just 
grab the  po-file, do a msgfmt -o and place the created mo-file in the 
correct directory.

what are the benefits?
1 - uncompleted translations in a release can be updated easily 
for example, Kile in SuSE 9.1 is not 100% translated, while the cvs-version of 
the po-file is. This happens with lots of applications in modules like 
kdeextragear: while in cvs it is allmost allways 100% translated, the shipped 
versions in distro's is not. With this feature, the user can easily update 
the translation, without having to install/compile a newer version of the 
application.
The same is possible for teams that don't have a 100% translated kde 3.3, when 
an application reaches 100%, you can inform your users about it, and they can 
easily update their translation.

2 - fixing (serious) bugs in translation between kde releases.
Recently we had a discussion about 'improving kde with translators'. One of 
the issues was that an application can become unuseable if a string is wrong 
translated (e.g. a noun is translated as a verb...). With this mechanism, 
when a serious error is found in a translation, the translation team can 
inform their users (throug a website etc..) and those users can update their 
translation version with just a few mouseclicks. They don't have to wait 
until the next kde release, they just install the patched po-file..

Possible problems:
1 - how to figure out which po-file should be used.
With the official kde release, this is easy, just pick the right branch.
With kdeextragear, is is more tricky and probably demands that the developers 
use some kind of standard branching method, etc..

2 - new translation can be incompatible with current instalation, resulting in 
mixed English/local applications. This can be resolved by informing the 
userabout this possibility, and offering an easy way to remove the update.
(imagien a wizard, where the user can choose to update a translation, or 
delete a recent update. The updater could make backups of previous updates 
(application.mo.back), if the user wants to delete the last update, the 
backup is placed back)

Rinse
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]