Easing software localization with Transifex

Posted Mar 26, 2009 13:48 UTC (Thu) by omaciel (guest, #49553)
In reply to: Easing software localization with Transifex by danilo
Parent article: Easing software localization with Transifex

Hi Danilo,

"The same statements are brought up by Og Maciel in quoted article, where, in the comments, he basically agrees that most of his points are untrue in response to others' comments."

I'm sorry Danilo but I believe you misunderstood my comments. What I said was that I had designed a blueprint to try and remedy the disconnect that there is between Ubuntu translations and upstream's.

Last time I checked, even if you don't host your code in Launchpad, you still have to manually upload newer translation catalogs (pot files) in order to "synchronize" the existing translations, which is suboptimal, but I *know* how understaffed you all are and that this will be resolved.

Transifex, in my opinion is a *great* option for those who need to manage their translations but either don't have the resources to handle the requirements or don't want to bother with it. The tool completely abstracts out the underlying "engine" and allows translators to get the job done.

Disclaimer: I do not work for either company or projects here mentioned.

Easing software localization with Transifex

Posted Mar 26, 2009 16:07 UTC (Thu) by danilo (guest, #57549) [Link]

Hi Og, in my reading, you seem to confirm that there is a "disconnect between Ubuntu translations and upstream's", but not necessarily because there's something wrong with Launchpad as a tool. IMO, that's due to social interaction that exists (or doesn't exist) between Ubuntu translators and upstream translators. There is really not much we can do in that particular case. I am not saying Launchpad Translations is perfect, but it's far from being the cause of any problems you mention in the article - today.

As for your second point, uploading a tarball, or downloading one back has so far been a well used interface for project maintainers: if it's working so well for so many projects, I don't understand why do you insist that it's unusable. Translators have had a chance to completely enjoy easy to use interface for translation, and I simply can't see what do you think is harder for translators with Launchpad than with Transifex (actually, I can see that a lot of things are easier for translators).

Now, Transifex is a great tool that helps maintainers with allowing outside contributions from translators. At this time, it beats Launchpad Translations hands-down when it comes to effort a maintainer needs to do to accept outside contributions. But, this is only for maintainers: I see no advantages in the approach for translators.

And, we _are_ working on making this easier for maintainers as well.

But, on some points, we'll simply have to agree to disagree.

Cheers,
Danilo