Using Mallard for Ubuntu docs

[Dylan McCall]

On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 1:31 PM, Kyle Nitzsche
<kyle.nitzsche at canonical.com> wrote:
> There were discussions previously on this list about the impacts
> (regressions) that conversion from docbook to mallard would have on
> existing Ubuntu Docs translations, namely that inline tags are often
> different (between docbook and mallard), which means the source strings
> are different, which means existing translations break. So that is a
> potential regression that probably should be identified up front with
> some kind of fact-based analysis (5% of strings, or 50%?) that gives
> some idea of the extent of translation regression that may occur, at
> least to enable Ubuntu Translators to understand what kind of additional
> work to expect. If much of this can be avoided by writing a clever
> conversion script, then that should be identified as an important piece
> of work, it would seem.

That would definitely be a nice number. However, it's important to
note the switch to Mallard in upstream applications usually comes with
changed copy as well. Mallard is connected with an inherently
different “feel,” after all. (All to good end, in my opinion).

While calculating the number of string regressions due to tag changes
would probably be useful somewhere, such a mechanical measure doesn't
(or at least shouldn't) tell the whole story.


Good luck!

Dylan