Re: doc-i18n-tool

[Jonathan Blandford <jrb redhat com>]

Damien Donlon Sun COM writes:

> >> > DocBook SGML -> .pot
> >> > DocBook SGML + .pot -> Translated DocBook SGML
> >> > 
> >> > The actual format/structure of the document doesn't change.
> 
> OK. Perhaps I should explain my specific concern a bit more, if only for
> my own peace of mind....
> 
> We have a small number of SGML translated help files which were used 
> to check multi-byte character rendering in Nautilus packaged with 
> Gnome 1.4. Nautilus for Gnome 2.0 is to use DocBook XML formatted  
> help files for rendering as opposed to DocBook SGML.
> The change introduces a small possibility of degradation of multi-byte
> character support in Nautilus. I understand that with Pango and the libxml2 
> hack already mentioned any degradation is unlikely but I don't know how 
> extensively it has been tested (any info. on this greatly
> appreciated).

I don't see why.  In both cases we aren't actually displaying anything
other than html.  Just the initial format is different.

> So, the ability to convert from DocBook SGML to DocBook XML on
> existing files would be useful from the point of view of testing. At
> this point,I have no idea what sort of programming undertaking this
> entails.

Well, it would be nice for other reasons, but I fear it's mostly a human
process.  I think it's mostly just a process of putting the docbook-xml
header on each doc, and running it through xmllint --valid

> The other point is that while the ability to render both the SGML and
> XML correctly is desirable, the ability to convert to DocBook XML can
> only facilitate doc translation because translating SGML docs can be
> awkward (particularly if you are not an EMACs or Adept user). As
> decent freeware XML editors become available, I'd rather give
> translators XML if possible.

The idea here is to give the translators a .po file (which they should
already be used to) along with the doc to do their translating with.

Thanks,
-Jonathan