Hi all :) Sorry I couldn't answer this earlier. On 01/04/2008, at 8:13 AM, W. Martin Borgert wrote:
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 07:48:22PM +0200, Joost van Baal wrote:Thanks a lot for volunteering! However, I'd first like to focus ongetting a nice FAQ shipped with Debian lenny. And, as Jens said, it'seasier to convert to other formats/translation interfaces once the translations are somewhat more up to date. Currently, almost all translations are missing entire sections.That's OK with me. Note, that translation work *might* be much easier using po (e.g. po4a). At least that's what the experts say :~) Anyway, I'm OK with postponing these changes.
Using PO format most definitely makes translation work earlier. Ultimately, we will all move to XLIFF, but for now, gettext PO is the best format to choose.
PO format allows a translator to see exactly which strings have changed, and exactly what has changed in those strings (especially if you use the msgid-previous feature). This is _much_ better than having to diff two SGML files to chase up changes.
Our PO editors also provide quite a few time-saving features that help us provide effective and accurate translations, for example error- checking and translation memory.
As a concrete example of the benefits of PO format for docs, I do not currently have time to translate docs if it means dealing with SGML or HTML. But convert those docs to PO format for me, and you save me enough time that the translation may well be viable.
To sweeten the deal: convert the Debian FAQ to PO format, and I will provide a Vietnamese translation, kept up to date, for as long as I am able. [1]
Frans Pop may have time to supply some pointers on this: he has PO format working beautifully for the D-I Manual. :)
from Clytie Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team http://vnoss.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=projects:l10n[1] This is not as good a deal as it seems, since illness is making it increasingly difficult for me to contribute, but I will do my best to get the text translated, and hopefully be able to maintain it for some time. In any case, my work will make it much easier for other translators to take over later.
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