Re: PO-based Documentation Translation

[Ole Laursen <olau hardworking dk>]

Hi Tim,

Tim Foster <Tim.Foster@Sun.COM> writes:

> Yes, I agree with the simplicity of the .po format : that's certainly
> it's strength. Unfortunately, it's also it's greatest weakness (God,
> that was dramatic, wasn't it!? ;-)
> 
> The trouble is that with .po files, down the line you have to start
> hacking the format with custom extensions when you decide you want to
> help the translator out by adding things like fuzzy matches, machine
> translation hits, glossary items and other aids to translation.

[...]

> Before you know it, you've re-implemented XLIFF, and have actually made
> the process more complicated for everyone involved since yours are the
> only tools that can make sense of the format.

That's true, but you could have build those things into the editor
tool instead of the file format, couldn't you?

> I appreciate that making things a little more complex for new
> translators to start translating GNOME is a big minus point[1], but at
> the same time, you're also increasing efficiency of existing
> translators.

Having a standard format that is more extensible than the .po format
sounds good. But personally, I will strongly oppose switching to an
XML based format unless someone make a convenient XLIFF mode for
Emacs. Your editor

  > http://www.netsoc.ucd.ie/~timf/Screenshot-TransEditor.png

may be good for your internal translation team, but I wouldn't touch
it with a firestick. It can't be as good as Emacs for editing text. I
suspect the VI persons here feel the same. And the ones using gedit.
And gtranslator. And KBabel. You get the picture. :-)

> Hope this helps outline more clearly the problems we had in the past and
> our reasons for migrating to XLIFF.

I think we should work on making the current editors understand the
XLIFF format, then later discuss how the software to be translated can
be switched.

I wish I had more spare time. Hacking on an XLIFF mode for Emacs
sounds like a fun project,

-- 
Ole Laursen
http://www.cs.auc.dk/~olau/