On Mon, May 08, 2006 at 12:04:21PM +0200, Xavier Conde Rueda wrote:
Hi all!
This is my first message on this list, so I'll introduce myself. My name is Xavi, and i'm in charge of the Catalan localization team. Many thanks for creating this list, it will help a lot!
I have some questions about the translation of tutorials for Inkscape. My team translated the SVG documents recently. We know the right way is to translate them on XML format, but we needed them on SVG in order to integrate them on a Windows package we deployed. We are going to move them to the XML tutorials, however I submitted the SVGs some months ago through the patch tracker but they haven't been accepted yet. I'm not sure if you don't accept SVG tutorials anymore (thus forcing to port them to XML, which anyway I think is the correct way) or if you just didn't saw them.
I'd favor adding the SVG tutorials. It's true that they need to be converted to XML in order to make it easier for translators, but I think that can be done subsequently. But I think this work is more likely to be done if the tutorials are included, than if they're sitting in the patch tracker.
I would say, check to see if anyone has raised any other issues in the tracker, aside from the XML conversion, and if not, then go ahead and add it (or find someone with commit access to apply it.) Bulia and ScislaC tend to be attentive to the tutorials and could be solicited for additional feedback, but remember that inkscape's motto is "patch first, discuss later". :-)
Also, related to Matiphas prevoius mail, i want to point a very important source for localization: the Windows installer. For my organization, it's very important to have it translated; just running it on English isn't enough, so we consider it as important as another UI element. So, in order of importance, i would say,
- po files
- tutorials
- Windows installer
- Release notes
- Web pages
- README, etc. (really this should be never been read at all)
In fact, you could question if translating README and HACKING is even appropriate: If a developer needs to change a process and updates one of these files, it will probably be difficult for translators to recognize the translated versions need updated right away, and in the meantime the original and the translation will be specifying different procedures; the reader then cannot trust anything but the original file, which could get frustrating. Fortunately, these files do not change very often...
A second issue with translating these files is that since they sit in the root directory, if they get translated into a lot of languages, it increases the filecount in that root inkscape/ directory quite a bit. A possible solution to this issue would be to move the translations into the doc/ directory.
Anyway, so yes I think putting them at lowest priority is the right thing.
Bryce
The TranslationInformation page should be rewritten following this list. Also, additional information for how to translate the windows installer should be added: it's not too difficult to translate, and it will save having to do a separate build with a translated installer. I would like to add the information about translating the installer, some time in the future :).
Regards!
Google talk: xavi.conde a gmail.com
Hackers (and creative people in general) should never be bored or have to drudge at stupid repetitive work, because when this happens it means they aren't doing what only they can do ??? solve new problems.
Eric Steven Raymond (http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html)