Translation status for ubuntu-docs

[Timo Jyrinki]

2012/3/26 Little Girl <littlergirl at gmail.com>:
> There is never a time when punctuation changes aren't really, really
> needed since the rules for punctuation are clearly defined, so if the
> punctuation is incorrect, it needs to be changed.

I understand this side as well. There's not much that can be done.

>> Because of the Launchpad problematics I mentioned, they cause havoc
>> in the translations that is disproportionate to the perceived
>> amount of changes in the documentation itself.
> If they cause havoc, that must mean the changes in the resulting
> meaning of the sentences were significant enough to warrant the
> ensuing havoc as translators scramble to recheck the content for
> accuracy. (:

No, that was the point. The translators cannot recheck the content for
accuracy in Launchpad, they must translate from scratch every time.
Because of how Launchpad works (does not work), if you change one
comma in the English string of let's say 10 sentences, all the
translations for all the languages for those 10 sentences are wiped
away in Launchpad, even if the translations had correct punctuation
for their respective languages. That is why sane translation tools
support the concept of "fuzzy" strings, where the translator can check
if the translation still matches the original string. Unfortunately
Launchpad is not one of those tools, which means translators are doing
the same strings over and over _without_ quality improvement since
they can't refine the earlier translations but must invent the same
things from scratch every time.

-Timo