Clean Sheet?

[Jonathon Blake]

Peter wrote:

> Better exposure which might bring better accuracy.

There have been errors in the French L10N version of OOo since day
one.  They _might_, but probably won't be fixed for OOo 2.0. I doubt
that OOo is the only FLOSS project where the UI has had known language
errors for years.

>Think about a centralised translation system where you get
suggestions for a string based on previous project

You're assuming the same word gets translated the same way every time.
 That is precisely why the French version of OOo has the errors it
does have.

If your L10N project is for a language like Toki Pona, then MAT is the
fastest way to ensure that the translations are meaningless.

>i track that wrong suggestion 

The word might well be correct in one instance, and wrong in another
instance.  The big issue in translating the UI, is seeing the strings
in context.  In document translation, everything is in context.

> A centralised translation system might mean "more" information for a translator.

If one of two conditions apply:
i) The translator can see the strings in context.  
ii) The L10N team is creating the technical vocabulary, as it
translates the documentation, User Interface, etc.
then the additional information is useful.  Otherwise it is of
questionable utility.

>you join the translation community and you might even get an entire
program automatically translated in a bunch of languages due to
"common" strings.

And the project lead gets visions of the strings being translated as
"Invisible, Insane", when it should read "Out of Sight, Out of Mind".

All it takes is for a couple of very badly translated strings to come
up, and the Project Lead will nix the tool, and go back to using
OmegaT, Translation Tool Kit, or PO.  With those tools, the
translation won't be corrupted by other software projects.

Go back to how material is typically checked for translation accuracy.
A third party translated the translated material back into the
original language.  If the results correspond, the translation is
good.  If they don't, start again from the beginning.

Have an L10N project for a "nice" language like Toki Pona.  The back
translation is not going to be anywhere close to the original, even
with skilled translators doing both translations.  Add translation
memory to the mix, and the back translation is going to be pure
gibberish.  [Granted, Toki Pona exploits some interesting aspects of
the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.]

> I don't think that such a system needs to be incorporated in the website to accomplish CVS synchronisation,

i) Security.
ii) Current strings being translated.

Do you really want to spend 500 hours translating something, to
discover that it won't be incorporated into any build?

> again with the exposure.

Exposure means nothing if the results are inaccurate.  And since
you're relying on machine translation, the results will be inaccurate.

>they in turn could benefit from other translation projects.

There is a lot more to a translation project than translating the
strings of the software.  That probably is the least of what is
involved.  The big effort is in producing _localized_ documentation. 
It doesn't matter whether it is created from scratch, or translated
from existing material.  Running it through anything that has a
Translation Memory is asking for bad translations.  It typically takes
translators twice as long to fix errors in bad translations, than to
translate from scratch.

>a web of  translations could provide a lot of automagic.... even for
big projects like GNOME or KDE.

No automagic.  Still have to have the L10N teams.

>celebrity of the translation project.

Translation projects are celebrity projects when one of three things happen.
i) It is the first software of its type to be localized for the language.
ii) The FLOSS project as a whole, is available with significantly more
localizations than the equivalent commercial software.
iii) A local political authority shuts down the translation project,
because it promotes the use of a minority language. [Name a country,
and it has prohibited a minority language from having a public voice.]

In none of those instances is the use of a web portal in translating
going to be relevant to the celebrity status of the translation
project.

>assigning translation homework to their students.

Like INGOTS does?  

No need for any web based tools for that.   

Like a wrote elsewhere, the tools have to fit the need of the project.
 For most L10N projects, if they have an existing site,it makes more
sense to add the tool to their site, than use still another website.

xan

jonathon
-- 
Monolingualism is a curable disease.
                               Carlos Fuentes