G'day everyone
NEWS ABOUT THE DECATHLON III
This is the third general newsletter of the Decathlon project. Feel
free to share this e-mail with people who may be interested. Invite
your friends or colleagues to join this low-volume announcement mailing
list about the Decathlon project. And encourage anyone to help translate
software into their language.
In this letter, we look at the following issues:
* The top 10 translating teams
* Two new approaches in our project
* Current projects:
- WordPress (a blogging system)
- VLC (a multimedia player)
* Other projects:
- SpeedCrunch (a scientific calculator)
- Tux Paint (a children's paint program)
* Feedback on Art of Illusion
* Tools for our translators
* Updated wiki pages
TOP 10 TRANSLATING TEAMS
I'm not a great fan of top 10 lists, because it creates the impression
that teams number 11 and lower have not done a great job. Some teams
just happen to be more active than others. Still, it is not possible to
mention all the work of all the teams in this newsletter, and therefore
I'll mention the top 10 most active projects.
In alphabetical order, the most prolific teams were German TuxGuitar,
Spanish TuxGuitar, Finnish Art of Illusion and Freemind, Galician
Freemind, Korean Art of Illusion and TuxGuitar, Brazilian Portuguese
TuxGuitar, Sundanese WordPress and Vietnamese WordPress.
One of the issues that prompted the Decathlon to start, is the fact that
translators often do not participate in multiple projects, and skills
get lost as a result of that. I would therefore encourage anyone who
translates software, to translate more than one project. Let there be a
transfer of translation skills from various projects to one another.
TWO NEW APPROACHES IN OUR PROJECT
We have decided to take two slightly different approaches in our
cooperation with software projects and permissions to translate in
Pootle, that will affect translators taking part in the Decathlon.
In the first few months of this project we focused mainly on new
languages for the various projects. In other words, if a program is
already translated into X, then we don't do X. The advantage of this
approach was that we could contribute to the projects without upsetting
their existing translators with a new translation system (Pootle). One
disadvantage is that existing translators who might like Pootle, never
get the opportunity to use it. Another disadvantage is that translators
using Pootle never get the sense that they are part of a larger group of
translators in that program.
In future we will focus on all languages, even the ones that have been
translated before. We will encourage translators who join us, to work
through the normal channels of each software product, and to formally
become part of their localisation processes. There is certainly
something to be said for taking as much hassle away from translators, so
that they can focus on translation only, but on the other hand I believe
translators should become involved in the language communities of the
software, even if that involvement is only to let them know that you're
doing a translation.
Another change we'll make on Pootle is to make fewer files available to
non-vetted translators. We want translators to take ownership of their
translations, and we encourage them to form teams. For this reason,
translators who seem most active or most qualified will be given
administrative rights, so that they can assign translation rights to
translators they trust. New users and incidental translators will be
given suggestion rights only. We'll be in contact with existing
translators to hear what they prefer.
CURRENT PROJECT - WORDPRESS
Let's translate WordPress! It is a very popular blogging system and it
is already available in many languages. If you want to help translate
WordPress into your language, read the information about it on our wiki,
and follow the procedures to let the WordPress community know that
you're there. If there is already a WordPress translation in your
language, see how you can get involved with the current translators, and
if you wish to use Pootle for your translations, why not try to convince
the other translators in your language to do the same?
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/wordpress
The language file for WordPress is rather large, so what we've done on
the Pootle server is to split it up into smaller files. This way, you
can decide which section you want to finish first.
If the WordPress localisation community sees that you're serious about
translating WordPress, they'll create a blog page dedicated to your
language.
CURRENT PROJECT - VLC
VLC is a video and sound player. It plays several types of files
without the need for additional installations. In some cases it can
play commercial DVDs, even. A new version of VLC is currently being
developed, and the language file for that version is already available.
Don't get a fright when you look at VLC's word count. The language file
is 30 000 words long, but if you translate a specific 5000 of them, the
program itself will look almost entirely translated. We've split the
one big VLC file into many smaller files, including one called "GUI".
The files on our Pootle server have also been split by topic, so if
you're more interested in one aspect of media players, you can focus on
that file alone.
As with WordPress, VLC has been translated into several languages, but
many of them has not been updated for a long time. Here's an
opportunity to get an existing translation process back on track!
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/vlc
OTHER PROJECTS - SPEEDCRUNCH
Some of you may have noticed that the scientific calculator SpeedCrunch
was added to our Pootle server a number of weeks ago. We were waiting
for the developer to migrate his language files from Qt/TS to Gettext PO
(because our Pootle server is not capable of working with TS files).
This has not happened yet, but SpeedCrunch remains on our server.
At present, the SpeedCrunch web site can be translated via Pootle.
However, I would like to encourage you to get involved in translating
the user interface as well, even though this can't be done in Pootle
yet. I recently created MS Word and OpenOffice.org files with the
SpeedCrunch, along with definitions and explanations that translators
might find useful. These files can be downloaded from the Decathlon wiki:
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/speedcrunch
Included in the files are alternative names for some of the scientific
procedures, images of the menu in SpeedCrunch, and a list of common
abbreviations for the mathematical items. The text itself is small --
only about 350 words
What makes SpeedCrunch interesting from a translation point of view, is
that translating it would entail contacting the local maths professor
and consulting mathematics materials (eg dictionaries) in your own
language. Sounds like a challenge!
OTHER PROJECTS - TUX PAINT
The Decathlon is not formally involved in translating Tux Paint, but it
is possible to translate Tux Paint files using our Pootle server. Tux
Paint is a wonderful little program for children that can be used in
schools or at home. And what's better is that Tux Paint's source text
consists mostly of common words, so anyone can translate it without
spending hours doing terminological research.
Check out the Tux Paint translation page and see if you can help update
your language. There are two files, namely the program itself, and a
list of images that children can paste in their pictures (called
"stamps"). The developer of Tux Paint recently completed an online list
of these stamps, and I recommend that translators use the online list to
help them translate the stamps.
The stamps are here: http://www.tuxpaint.org/stamps/. If you can see
what each stamp looks like, it will be easier to find a translation for
it, even if the object does not occur commonly in your language. For
example, one stamp is labelled "An Adelaide Rosella", but if you can see
it looks like a parrot, you can translate it with "parrot" if there is
no specific word for this species in your language.
FEEDBACK ON ART OF ILLUSION
In our previous newsletter we encouraged translators to translate the
graphics editor, Art of Illusion. Five teams responded to that call,
and we had Art of Illusion contributions in Finnish, Korean, Dutch,
Polish and Brazilian Portuguese. The translations in those languages
are ongoing, and we can always use more translators.
If you're the type of translator who prefers to work with comprehensive
and helpful documentation, and you don't mind doing a bit of research
and asking people questions while translating, then Art of Illusion is a
good project for you to get involved with. Art of Illusion has some of
the potentially most useful user manuals, tutorials and user forums I've
seen. Most items in the translation will be covered somewhere in the
user manual.
Visit the page for Art of Illusion on the Decathlon wiki:
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/art_of_illusion
TOOLS FOR OUR TRANSLATORS
It may be useful to remind you of some of the things available that
might help with your translation efforts.
* po-terminology.po
Every project in Pootle has a file called "po-terminology.po". This is
a glossary file. If you translate it first, Pootle will use it to offer
suggested translations while you translate the other files. If you
don't want to use Pootle but you think you might find the glossary
useful, you can download it from our wiki pages -- it is generally the
4th link from the top of each software project's page.
* custom Google search
We created mini search engines to search only very specific files that
may be related to the program you're translating. These search engines
are powered by Google. One of the first four links on each project's
page in our wiki will take you to the search engine. It is very useful
for research into difficult terms to translate.
* the Pootle users mailing list
There are several Pootle servers in the world, and many of their users
are on the Pootle users mailing list. It is okay for new users to post
questions there. If you struggle with any aspect of Pootle, simply send
a message to the Pootle users mailing list. Join here:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/translate-pootle
* the Pootle IRC channel
If you know how to use IRC, you can ask Pootle related questions on the
Pootle IRC channel. The server is irc.freenode.net, and the channel is
#pootle. Interestingly, many of the programs we translate also have
channels for their users on that server, so it can be useful if you want
to ask a quick question from people that use the program regularly.
UPDATES TO OUR WIKI PAGES
We continually update our wiki pages with useful information about the
various translation projects. Check back every now and then. Recently
we expanded the sections explaining to translators how they can become
more actively involved with the programs they translate. In the case of
VLC and WordPress, there are also additional pages explaining how the
files were split and how they can be merged.
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/
If you're a translator on our Pootle server, don't forget to indicate
your project and your language in your user profile. This makes it
easier for us to assign rights to you. The procedure is also explained
in our Quick Start guide, that we recommend everyone to read.
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/quickstart
Finally, it is worth taking a look at the Localisation Guide that is
being written by Translate.org.za and other people. It is full of
useful information for localisation translators and project managers.
Go check it out, and add to it!
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/guide/start
I look forward to seeing some activity this month on VLC and WordPress.
Sincerely
Samuel Murray
--
Samuel Murray samuel@tr...
Decathlon, for volunteer opensource translations
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/
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