Re: translating gnome with pootle

[Dwayne Bailey <dwayne translate org za>]

On Mon, 2010-02-15 at 12:40 +0200, F Wolff wrote:
> Op Ma, 2010-02-15 om 16:54 +0800 skryf Umarzuki Mochlis:
> > I needed guidance on setting up pootle as a means of translating gnome
> > to malay language so everybody can translate gnome online, anywhere as
> > long as there is internet access. 
> > 
> > 
> > The question is:
> > Is this method is the best for what I'm trying to achieve? If yes, how
> > I setup one with a web hosting provider?
> 
> Hallo
> 
> You won't be the first one to try to do this.

Nope you won't.  At Translate.org.za we've been using Pootle for various
projects across the board (yes we also write the software).  We use it
for Mozilla Firefox translations, OpenOffice.org and various other
smaller pieces of software.

I think the critical things that you should consider are these:
* Pootle gives you terminology help, this is really important in terms
of ensuring quality across translations, especially from a broader
volunteer community.
*Putting things online makes it much easier to translate but it won't
make anyone a better translator.
* It allows people to make suggestions. This is one way to ensure new
translators don't mess with good translations. Its also a way for
someone to give suggestions for corrections i.e. a much broader
feedback.
* It integrates with VC so change upstream are merged with changes in
Pootle.  This is harder in GNOME through IIRC because of the
translations being located per project.
* Allows you to run translation sprints or Translate thons very easily.
* Quality checks help evaluate someone's attention to detail and catches
errors that break software.

Hope that helps a bit.

> On Debian you can easily install Pootle with
>   apt-get install pootle
> It can also run directly from the extracted files.  For a hosting
> provider, mod_wsgi is probably the most important requirement.

Or on Fedora:

  yum install pootle

> You definitely want to make sure you get the newest version (2.0.x), and
> configure it for optimal performance.  You can get help on IRC at
> #pootle on irc.freenode.net and the Pootle mailing list.  Let me know
> how things go for you and if you need any further help.

Also feel free to chat about some of the social and community issues
we've experienced using these types of tools.

-- 
Dwayne Bailey
Associate             Research Director        +27 12 460 1095 (w)
Translate.org.za      ANLoc                    +27 83 443 7114 (c)

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