[FM Discuss] Re : how do you use translate.fm?

[Clytie Siddall]

On 08/04/2010, at 4:36 PM, Lachlan Musicman wrote:

> I'm not a translator, and was quite impressed the first time I saw the
> way that FM had organised it's translation system.
> 
> Though now that I teach in the Translation school at Monash, and it
> seems that a few people have said they like to take the text and
> translate it in other software.

Because this is their normal workflow. It saves you a lot of time if you can use your normal workflow, or integrate a new tool into your workflow.
> 
> Given that, I would ask the follow up question "What software do
> people use to do their translations?"

Doc translations or program translations?
> 
> For two reasons:
> 
> 1. If you are just doing your translations in a text editor or word
> processor, I recommend OmegaT or OmegaT+ as being excellent FLOSS (and
> cross platform) software to help. OmegaT (
> http://www.omegat.org/en/omegat.html ) is the original and has very
> active user and dev email list with software updates coming out every
> month or so, OmegaT+ is a fork that is slightly behind in development
> and has less uptake, but a much "prettier" interface.

I haven't tried OmegaT again recently, but I have been assured that it has become much more user-friendly. It does handle HTML files for translation.

I give priority to docs which have already been converted to PO or XLIFF format, because then I can translate them in my usual translation editor. That is LocFactoryEditor on OSX, which has syntax highlighting and msgid-previous diff by word, which both help a great deal with doc translations.

I've tried translating docs out of PO or XLIFF format, but always trip over the lack of a true translation format. HTML is not a translation format. It doesn't allow us to use the features of our normal workflow. OmegaT may help with that, as it's designed to handle HTML. But so far, there are so many docs already available in PO or XLIFF, that I'd need some very good reasons to step outside my normal workflow.

My current presence in FLOSS Manuals is due to a specific request from an OLPC project worker in Vietnam. I haven't found the FM translation interface to have any of the tools of a translation editor, so unless I can convert the files and work on them offline, or Booki develops a genuine translation interface, I will not continue. It's not lack of interest, simply the best use of the time I have. The current PO or XLIFF based workflow is effective: so far; a  doc translation workflow based on any other format is not.

The need for an effective doc-translation workflow in FLOSS, however, has been bugging us all for quite some time. I'd be happy to put time into testing something that would give us a similar level of effectiveness to our current workflow based on PO/XLIFF.

Gettext PO format was developed specifically for program strings. XLIFF, on the other hand, is ideal for any kind of translation, docs included. It allows for unlimited metadata, and there are already convertors for doc formats.
> 
> 2. If this is the preferred method, maybe we should investigate an
> "export text for translation" function in booki to integrate with a
> workflow that includes Translation software (sometimes referred to as
> CAT software for Computer Aided Translation; or TEnTs, Translation
> Environment Tools).

Yes, definitely.
> 
> The added bonus of using this method is that if writers are
> comprehensive with their glossaries, these can be exported as well -
> glossaries are regularly used for translation integrity at a word
> level. (Translation Memories, or TMs, are used for integrity at a
> sentence level)

It's not just a bonus: TM is a crucial time-saver and QA element.
> 
> Both OmegaT and OmegaT+ provide an interface that means translations
> happen in one window, but also provide room for Glossaries and TMs for
> quick insert of previously translated words or sentences.
> 
> What do you think Adam/Aco/dev team?
> 
> And Translators?

I think it's time for me to revisit OmegaT. But what you've said above ties in to my previous email. We do need a translation editor within FM or Booki, and/or we need a way to integrate FM/Booki texts into our current workflow.

from Clytie 

Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team