Re: "Automatic" UI translations showing word translations along with original

[Clytie Siddall <clytie riverland net au>]

Sorry, Simon, I only just came up for air, so I hadn't read this  
message before.

On 17/08/2005, at 6:21 AM, Simos Xenitellis wrote:

> Suppose the resources to translate to a specific language are not  
> there but there is a dictionary available.
> It's possible to autotranslate the user-interface words so that the  
> text appears as
>
> Before: Press here
> After: Press(Pulse) here(aqui)
>
> Would that be useful?
>
> Well, Tim Foster (http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/timf/20050816)  
> tried it out, so have a look at the screenshot
> he created and post your comments!
> Try to think if there would be any application of this functionality.

It would definitely be useful for my language community. We don't  
have a lot of material already translated, and very few translators  
working in OSS (at the moment, me :( ), and for years our main  
survival tactic has been looking words up in the dictionary one by  
one, and guessing a lot. Something like what you suggest would be a  
BIG help for any language which does not have a lot of translation  
support, very few dictionaries and those often out-of-date.

I also agree it would be a very useful language-learning tool. Where  
do you intend to go with this from here? I'd be happy to help test it.

I also wonder if we could experiment with combining it with  
Pootle... :D (Cc'd to the translate-pootle list, of which both Simon  
and I are active members).

It's new approaches like this that can change the way we deal with a  
problem, often freeing up resources for more innovative or  
challenging work than repetitive translation.

from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhÃm  
Viát hÃa phán mám tá do)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/vi-VN