ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu: contemplating some string changes

[David Planella]

Hi Dylan,

El dv 12 de 03 de 2010 a les 15:27 -0800, en/na Dylan McCall va
escriure:
> Hi there!
> 
> With the redesigned ubiquity-slideshow I blogged about, I received a
> ton of constructive feedback. It inspired many possible string changes
> in ubiquity-slideshow's Ubuntu template. With that and some
> interesting details which have emerged now that the dust around
> Lucid's new stuff storm has settled, I have an overwhelming urge to
> modify about 30% of the strings :o

First of all, good work with the Ubiquity Slideshow, I haven't tried the
installer since a few days, but the screenshots look awesome.

For those who haven't seen the blog post, it's here:

  http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-stuff-for-ubiquity-slideshow.html

> 
> Of course, this is an ugly position, because looking at Rosetta there
> are a bunch of full translations and some other partial ones that are
> rather well along, and I do hate to break things. (Honest!)
> 

Ubiquity is currently fully translated in 29 languages [1], with some
ten more nearing completion.

> Would it be okay for the translation effort if I upload the new
> strings and consider them frozen with documentation freeze on March
> 25?
> 

We've got a procedure for this:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreezeExceptionProcess#UserInterfaceFreeze%
20Exceptions

While I think you don't have to file a bug about it right now, it would
be very helpful if you could tell us some more about the changes, so we
can decide whether they are worth breaking translations at this point.
For example, I'd be interested to know:

      * Which packages would be affected (the Ubuntu Slideshow, the
        Kubuntu Slideshow, the Xubuntu Slideshow, the Upgrade Slideshow,
        all)?

      * Which exact strings would be affected and how?

Note that sting freeze breaks are nothing that dramatic if they are
properly communicated, but we have the procedure there for a reason:
translators have got quite a lot of packages to work on and not everyone
can monitor everything, so it can be very frustrating both for
translators and users to find out that something appears unnoticeably
untranslated because of a break, and that their work has been lost.

I'd be most interested to hear what the teams who have completed all
translations have got to say. Altough exceptions disrupt the translation
work, we've learnt to accomodate for them.

> There would then be beta 2 and the release candidates for translations
> to be tested.
> 

Another semi-related note: you might be doing this already, but just in
case I'll reinstate. It would be quite useful that before milestones
translations are imported from Launchpad and integrated into the
package, since we often get bugs during milestone testing that
translations are not complete, although they've been completed in
Launchpad.

> A lot of this stuff is about clarification; just small changes. There
> is the odd addition (eg: Ubuntu One Music Store, useful information in
> the Empathy slide) which will completely replace old strings. I'm okay
> to prioritize things and only submit what is really important, but
> that could take a bit longer to work through (and wouldn't be as
> attractive in the end).
> 

Prioritization sounds good. Yes, if you could tell us which strings are
affected, the translators could help in making the decision whether all
changes are worth or if there is need for prioritization.

> I realize that having fancy English pales in comparison to having rich
> translations in a million different languages. So, I want to give
> everyone a heads up (just so nobody else translates the possibly
> doomed strings) and be sure this won't cause too much damage.
> 

Thanks for the heads up, this kind of communication is always appreciate
by translators.

> Thanks,
> 
> Dylan McCall
> 
> PS: My thought at this point is that it would really make sense for my
> project, going forwards, to be considered a documentation package as
> far as string freeze is concerned. Anyone know how I can go about
> that?
> 

I think it's just a matter of adding a note to
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidReleaseSchedule, especially to
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationStringFreeze, but I'm not sure how
well this is going to work. This will give you more time in stabilizing
the strings, but we put the Ubiquity Slideshow packages on the first
page of the translation templates in Launchpad. This means they are
really visible, and translators tend to go for these first, so it might
be difficult to explain that they are documentation-like translations
and follow a different string freeze schedule.

> PPS: It occurs to me that we could probably add new translations when
> the 10.04.1 images are made, too :)
> 

That's true, but I would use that opportunity to include those languages
which couldn't finish the translation by the Lucid release, not to
extend the deadline for translations :-)

Regards,
David.

[1] https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/+source/ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu/+pots/ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu

-- 
David Planella
Ubuntu Translations Coordinator
david(dot)planella(at)ubuntu(dot)com
www.ubuntu.com



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