From kde-i18n-doc  Sun Oct 25 21:38:47 2009
From: Albert Astals Cid <aacid () kde ! org>
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:38:47 +0000
To: kde-i18n-doc
Subject: Re: Why does kde-i18n-doc translate outdated documentation?
Message-Id: <200910252238.47330.aacid () kde ! org>
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-i18n-doc&m=125650678326953

A Dissabte, 24 d'octubre de 2009, Chusslove Illich va escriure:
> > [: Albert Astals Cid :]
> > Having a doc that can't be easily translated is like not having a doc. So
> > translation should not be an afterthough in the doc "solution" but a
> > integral part of it.
> 
> "Integral" is one way, but I'd prefer "modular" instead :)
> 
> I propose that those who intend to do some "new style" documentation
> (whatever it may be), do so mostly without considering translation, but
> focusing on how to make that documentation useful and maintainable (and
> *maintained* :)
> 
> As for translations, they should only provide the following:
> 
> 1. The whole tree of what is to be translated should be made downloadable
> _from some location through a file-dedicated protocol, picked from a list
>  of supported protocols (at least available will be: ftp://, svn://,
>  git://).
> 
> 2. The whole translated copies of this tree should be uploadable somewhere
> as by-language directories, using same or different file-dedicated
>  protocol/ location.
> 
> 3. Those translated trees should be automatically convertible into form for
> end-user consumption.
> 
> Important note. These steps *must* be done by the documentation maintainer,
> or someone from that same project on maintainer's behalf. They *will not*
>  be done by anyone from KDE TP. (Of course, as time goes by, canned
>  solutions may be collected for easy deployment on some typical
>  sources/setups.)
> 
> An example. If a piece of documentation is maintained through Mediawiki,
> then its maintainer should make articles available through e.g. FTP,
> mirroring the wiki tree:
> 
>   ftp://somewhere/froobaz/doc/
>       About/
>           Who_Should_Use_Froobaz.mediawiki
>           froobaz_main_window_screenshot.png
>           ...
>       Tutorials/
>           Your_First_Froobazity.mediawiki
>           ...
>       ...
> 
> This tree is of course periodically refreshed, as articles get updated.
> Then, there should be a location where translated versions of the tree can
> magically appear at, by language:
> 
>   ftp://somewhere/froobaz/doc-l10n/
>       af/
>           About/
>               Who_Should_Use_Froobaz.mediawiki
>               froobaz_main_window_screenshot.png
>               ...
>           Tutorials/
>               Your_First_Froobazity.mediawiki
>               ...
>           ...
>       ar/
>           ...
>       as/
>           ...
>       ...
> 
> The documentation maintainer needs only to allow write access by a single
> entity (we'll think about authentication) to this location, no other
> maintenance needed. Finally, the maintainer needs to establish an automatic
> way of putting these translated trees up as wiki pages (they should be
> locked for normal editing).
> 
> So much about documentation maintainer's side, the other question is who
> will make it work behind the scene on translations' side. Since I'm being
>  so awfully specific, clearly I volunteer to do it. I only don't know when
>  :) But this is precisely where we can delay and experiment, as having some
>  *new* untranslated documentation for some months is not the end of the
>  world.
> 

So basically you are proposing a way to do mediawiki -> po and po -> mediawiki 
and po -> docbook/html

What all of us is proposing.

I disagree however that having new untranslated documentation is acceptable.

Albert