State of Farsi Gnome translation

[Refdoc <refdoc crosswire org>]

Hi,

I am Peter von Kaehne, a developer in CrossWire Bible Society (open
source cross platform Bible software project) and Farsi translator of
Xiphos (formerly GnomeSword - a Gnome/GTK based frontend to Crosswire's
offerings).

Xiphos relies in parts on translations coming from central Gnome related
libraries.

Over the last year or so I have noticed that these centrally provided
translations suffering quite a bit under bit-rot and this is now
affecting us as a project quite badly as central items like "quit" etc
are not anymore covered.

Looking at the translation statistics

http://l10n.gnome.org/languages/fa/gnome-2-28/ui/

and

http://l10n.gnome.org/teams/fa

it is clear that the current state is not good and that there is steady
decline over the last couple of years.

Looking at the steadiness of the decline, the large number of fuzzy
terms, the list of open bugs, the number of patches submitted (sometimes
complete new po files), the lack of review, the number of pings by Andre
Klapper  and the date of most of these (nearly all in 2008) I am not
sure if there is any action at the moment.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=l10n&component=Persian%20[fa]&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED

I have tried several times in 2008 and 2009 to contact Roozbeh directly
(never yet on this mailing list) about matters of Farsi translation,
lists of approved words etc but got no response. I am not even anymore
sure that the email addresses publicly listed are those which are
currently still active.

I most certainly do not want to kickstart a new round of the rather
upsetting thread from last year on this very subject

http://www.mail-archive.com/gnome-i18n gnome org/msg09525.html

, but am wondering what I can do about the matter.

Personally I would like to get the various underlying libraries updated.
I believe that the even going through the "fuzzy" translations and
"unfuzzying" things which are clear cut, would improve the state of
affairs enormously.

I am not even remotely as accomplished a translator as many contributors
here in the past, but in the light of current and lasting inactivity I
would rather step up to the mark and deliver something potentially
incomplete and buggy, then leaving things as they are right now. My
personal experience with these matters is that producing
something/anything in such sensitive areas as translations is often
enough to get others, better qualified but less motivated into action.
The embarassement of buggy translations is just too big to keep shtum :-)

So, what is it I am asking for?

I would like to get direct write access to the translations for the
underlying libraries. I intend to limit myself to the matters most
concerning to my own projects and to refrain from doing anything
controversial. I most certainly would not touch the stuff causing so
much aggro last year. I am willing to work closely under some sort of
guidance/mentoring scheme/coordinator/whatever. I would also relinquish
my write access immediately once it becomes obvious that I can not keep
up with the relevant commitment. As I am an unknown here on Gnome I can
understand if this is asking for too much, but I do ask you to consider
this please anyway, in the light of the obviuous decline of Farsi Gnome.

If Roozbeh re-emerges and starts doing things (now or later) I would
obviously immediately cease working independently and submit to his
guidance in things (or indeed withdraw completely) as he is a much much
better translator that I can ever hope to be.

Karl Kleinpaste, the lead developer from Xiphos (karl kleinpaste org)
can provide a reference for me in terms of my working practices,
willingness to work in a team and subject to authority etc. Any passing
Iranian can obviously have a look at xiphos and see if they are deeply
dissatisfied with its translation into Farsi.

yours

Peter