[Fwd: Re: Translations, GNOME and KDE]

[Kenneth Rohde Christiansen <kenneth gnu org>]

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• From: Kenneth Rohde Christiansen <kenneth gnu org>
• To: Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>
• Subject: Re: Translations, GNOME and KDE
• Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2004 20:11:55 +0100

> I'll keep this in mind when working on marketing stuff.

Sounds good!

> > I don't know whether KDE call translations supported when the coverage
> > is between 98%-100% - but if so maybe we should do that same.
> 
> Yeah, that's mentioned in the mail. But the mail also says that GNOME does
> the same thing, so... Hmm. :-)
> 
> Beyond PR, what do you think are the big things in our way?

Well, translating GNOME is a big task. Most people I have had contact
with[1] - who would like to translate GNOME - finds it a too big task
and find it too technically. 

They need to download the po files from the status pages or generate
from cvs. After that they need to check the file and get someone to
commit it. I have noticed that some of the translators are scared of
using a terminal. Maybe we need a web interface where people can check
their files? po-validator.gnome.org :-) ?

And if there isn't a team leader who should check the files in then?
People don't know and people don't know where to look. Some people do of
course - but now we are talking about the people reluctant to actually
translate - even though they want to.

Some translators would also like to be able to translate from Windows 
from time to time, since they might not be fully converted yet. Problem here 
is that they don't know what editor to use.

It is also hard for newbies to figure out what they should translate first 
- what matters the most.

Cheers, Kenneth

PS: It would be nice with a top 10 list of the essential modules as well.
plus a good description on the status pages of what developers-libs, desktop, 
office etc is

PPS.: Maybe we can do something for recruting new translators? There is a lot of 
minority liefhebbers out there, who would like to help - but who are not technical
- or using Linux yet.

[1] people translating into African, Limburgish etc.

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