Request for feedback from translation and loco teams (was: Re: Ubuntu localization questions)

[Arne Goetje]

Hi all,

Og Maciel wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 4:32 AM, Dražen Odobašić
> <dodobas at geoinfo.geof.hr> wrote:
>> I'm not even sure is this 'proper' list to ask. Anyway, I would like to
>> ask how do you coordinate localization in your team?
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> I wrote about how the Brazilian team does it here:
> http://www.ogmaciel.com/?p=532
> 
> Hope it helps.
> 
> Cheers,

related to this, as the "man in charge" for i18n/l10n related issues in
Ubuntu, I'd like to ask the *translation and loco teams* for regular
feedback (i.e. for each upcoming Ubuntu release) on how well language
support for the languages in your country/region is already implemented
and where it needs improvements or fixes.

This includes translations, locale availability, input methods /
keyboard layouts, fonts / rendering issues, etc. for the default Ubuntu
desktop in your language.

I have set up a wiki page for Asia already [1], additional wiki pages
for the Americas, Africa, Europe and Oceania will follow. They list
countries / regions and the languages spoken within their territories.
This includes official [o] and minority [m] languages, which have a ISO
639 language code and thus can be implemented as a locale, the basic
requirement for using a language on an operating system.

Please fill in the current status for each new release for each language
you are aware of in your country/region. If there are any showstoppers,
please list the bug number in Launchpad.

Please also comment on the status of the language-packs. How much of the
standard desktop is translated (in Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org)?
 Please give a rough estimated percentage to indicate what a potential
user can expect if (s)he installs the language-pack for a given release.
You can also make a more detailed statement about the situation for the
main desktop, menu items, system dialog boxes, additional programs'
menus and dialogs, etc. it's up to you, but the more details the better. ;)

Further more, I'd like to ask the *translation teams* to provide
feedback about how you do what you do. The goal is to have a collection
of "Best Practice" items for:
 a) translation teams
  * how to run a translation team efficiently
  * how to maintain a high standard of the translations (what schemes do
you follow, what to keep an eye on, issues you have/had with
contributers, etc.)
  * experience on how to feed back translations and communicate with
upstream and which problems you met (and solved or not)
  * anything else you'd like to share with other teams

 b) translators
  * conventions you use in your language
  * which terms to prefer and which to avoid
  * any other things you'd like to share with (potential) translators

Please note that the intent is _not_ to provide a definite guide on how
things should be done, but rather a _collection_ of practices which have
worked well for your team and which might be beneficiary for others.

I suggest to have two wiki pages for these purposes, which should be
linked from the main Translation portal [2].

Finally, I'd like to remind those teams, which haven't done so yet, to
put some contact information on your team page in Launchpad, so that
other interested parties can contact the teams directly.

General discussion and questions should go to the ubuntu-translators
mailinglist [3], feature request for Rosetta (probably after holding the
discussion on the list) should go to [4].

Cheers
Arne
Ubuntu i18n guru and "temporary" [5] Translation Team Coordinator

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LanguageSupport/Asia
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TranslatingUbuntu
[3] http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-translators
[4] https://answers.launchpad.net/rosetta/
[5] http://webapps.ubuntu.com/employment/canonical_UTC

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