[scribus-dev] Scribus documentation translations temporarily removed from builds

["Christoph Schäfer"]

Am Montag, 29. November 2010, 10:14:53 schrieb Louis Desjardins:
> 2010/11/29 Gregory Pittman <gpittman at iglou.com>
> 
> > On 11/28/2010 10:23 PM, Louis Desjardins wrote:
> >> 2010/11/28 Gregory Pittman <gpittman at iglou.com
> >> <mailto:gpittman at iglou.com
> >> 
> >>    I think that when we get some translators on board for the docs,
> >>    the
> >>    screenshots aren't so hard to do. If we knew we had them, I
> >>    could be
> >>    making dialog screenshots in various languages as I go...
> >> 
> >> Good evening Greg,
> >> 
> >> The issue here is to have material readily available to whoever wants
> >> to
> >> translate any part of the documentation without even having to ask for
> >> it.
> > 
> > I disagree. The issue is getting translators on board actually working
> > on
> > the translations. The raw material they need is present in the 1.3.9svn
> > version of Scribus. Witness our Italian friend Alevati feverishly
> > working on Italian translations for the wiki pages, and it doesn't seem
> > he is inhibited by the use of English-language screenshots.
> 
> I guess this mostly depends on the skills of the translator. I am still on
> the opinion that if we’d have an automated way of outputting those
> screenshots, it would be helpful. Mind you, we don’t need to run the script
> all the time. But from time to time, when for instance a stable version is
> released, then we can produce the screenshots for all.
> 
> > One of the big problems we had with the printed manual was getting
> > output
> > from those who told us they would contribute. I can step in and begin
> > making screenshots showing the content pertinent to the text, in
> > whatever language. It may be that some translators won't mind or would
> > prefer to make their own.
> > 
> > There is not quite so much work as it would seem, since there is still
> > quite a bit of content that Christoph and I agree is quite out of date,
> > and wrong to varying degrees, with screenshots that make little sense
> > in the context of current Scribus versions.
> 
> I am not talking about wrong or outdated content but I am looking ahead to
> see how we could improve the translation of the doc. To me, it is *not* a
> success so far. We have outdated French translation, and I don’t know the
> status for German. Do we have other translations for the doc? Now I am happy
> to read we’re going to have an Italian version. We have 49 languages in the
> GUI list. When we call up the online help, we are sent to:
> 
> http://docs.scribus.net/
> 
> where we have currently 3 languages. This is short, don’t you think ?
> 
> The screenshots of this doc seem outdated for most of what I see after a
> quick overview — however much of this information is still valuable as the
> program has evolved but we are still in DTP... and the basic principles are
> covered. Anyway, this needs to be updated too.
> 
> If the doc was available for translation as a wikipedia article for
> instance, and we could merge automatically — when the developers think it is
> time to do it — the screenshots, then I think we could see more action on
> the translation front.
> 
> Do you know how many screenshots we have in the Manual ?
> 
> Of course, don't get me wrong, I don’t think it is only a matter of
> screenshots... of course.
> 
> I am looking for a solution. To me, one book in English and online help in 2
> more languages is a signal that something needs to be improved. I don’t say
> my solution is the best but I think it’s worth digging a bit in that
> direction. Only showing the work is already started can convince someone to
> step in and give a hand.

I think we need to put this into perspective. We're talking about the Online Help here. This means that not all screenshots need to be redone for a translation, as only some of them are language/UI-specific. Plus, since it's highly unlikely that a translator can work like a machine, the files will be translated one by one, and a translator can create a localised screenshot whenever it's necessary. In other words: there are no robo-translators, thus, no need for robo-screenshots. And, as Greg already mentioned, we need human beings willing to do the work before we can start the creation of language-specific screenshots. We simply do not know for how many languages there will be volunteers. It may be possible to automate the creation of screenshots, but I doubt this is worth the efforts, as someone will have to write the code. On the other hand, what would be really useful is a set of sample files that can be used across translations, to make sure that screenshots show the same content in all language versions. This set of files can be created when the update to the English version has been more or less completed.

Christoph
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