[Repost of first newsletter that went out on 17 April 2008]
G'day everyone
You're receiving this little "newsletter" because you had previously
shown an interest in the Decathlon volunteer opensource software
translation project. We have also created a low-volume announcement
mailing list about the Decathlon project. Anyone is welcome to join that
mailing list even if they don't want to participate in the translation
process.
Join the announcement mailing list here:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/translate-decathlon
* How is the Decathlon progressing?
We initially struggled to get interest from sufficient numbers of
translators, but the project is now gaining momentum. Up to date we've
received interest from translators in several languages, although many
of them had indicated that they would only be able to start in April or May.
The languages include: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian,
Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Chuukese,
Croatian, Dutch, Estonian, Faroese, Farsi, Finnish, French, Gaelic,
Galician, German, Japanese, Korean, Maltese, Manx, Polish, Portuguese,
Russian, Southern Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Tajik, Thai, Vietnamese,
Wolof, Xhosa and Zulu.
If you had shown an interest in the Decathlon, I encourage you to start
translating. In fact, get a team of friends/colleagues and then all
translate together. The web-based translation system we use, Pootle, is
ideal for groups of translators working independent from each other on a
single project.
* Translate the glossaries first
All of our current projects now also include glossaries. These
terminology files usually contain the 100 most frequent words in that
project (excluding common words). Translations from these files are
automatically displayed in the browser while translators translate the
main project files. One can insert glossary items at the cursor position
into the text box by simply clicking it. By translating the terminology
files first, you can help ensure consistency in your language.
* Remember to log in
We see from our server logs that some people visit many pages
repeatedly, without translating anything. We suspect these may be users
who don't realise that they must be logged in to translate. Please
always ensure that you are logged in. If you have lost your Pootle
username or password, just let me know.
* Terminology research leads to greater satisfaction
I believe a translator gets most satisfaction from his work if he puts
in an effort to do proper terminology research. This may sound ominous
but it basically means that you mustn't guess while you translate. It is
often possible to figure out what a word or phrase mean by simply
Googling for it or searching certain web sites.
On each project's page on the Decathlon wiki you'll find mention of
potentially useful web sites and resources. Check out the FreeMind page,
for example: http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/freemind
* Many hands make light work
Working alone is no fun, and with Pootle it is possible to work in a
group without any translator stepping on anyone else's toes. I encourage
you to form informal teams, to translate quicker. If 5 friends translate
50 words a day, then that is 5000 words by the end of the month... which
can be a complete program.
Remember, by default all translators can translate anything in Pootle,
but if you prefer more control over your language team, we'll arrange it
so that unconfirmed translators can only offer suggestions.
* Do the checks
Pootle is more than a translation system -- it can also do a measure of
quality control. Anyone can check the translations for certain basic
things like whether the start and end punctuation of the source and
target is the same, whether the translation has the same number of
sentences as the original, whether acronyms have been translated or not,
whether variables and accelerators have been transferred correctly, etc.
To do the checks, simply click "Show checks" after you've clicked "Show
editing functions", after which a list of checks will automatically be
performed. Clicking on the individual links will display the sentences
that appear to fail the checks. These checks are important because they
ensure that the end-product looks good.
* A quick overview on how to translate
Remember, if you want to participate in translating, you need to
register a user account at our Pootle server, and once the account has
been activated (usually automatically via e-mail), you can start
translating. Here is the procedure in a nutshell:
1. Register here:
http://pootle.locamotion.org/register.html
and wait for the activation e-mail.
2. Read here (for information about FreeMind as well as useful resources
you can use):
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/freemind
3. Then log in to Pootle:
http://pootle.locamotion.org/login.html
4. And go the FreeMind page for your language on Pootle:
http://pootle.locamotion.org/xh/freemind/ (example for Xhosa)
5. Click "Show Editing Functions" (this is very important)
6. Click "Quick Translate" or "Translate All" and start translating!
Not all projects can be translated into all languages -- it depends on
the arrangement we have with a project's localisation manager. But if
you're involved in a PO based opensource software translation effort and
you'd like to use Pootle, just let us know and we'll see if we can hook
you up.
I look forward to your mails. Remember to bug me with any questions you
may have. And feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone you think may
be interested.
Good luck!
Samuel Murray
Decathlon project leader
|
