[DDR] chapitre l10n pour la Référence du dévelopeur
Bonjour,
c'est de l'anglais et ça aurait besoin d'être relu, et ça devrait aller
juste avant les appendices.
merci à vous, ensuite je posterai sur d-l-english.
Nicolas
--
<chapt id="l10n">Internationalizing, translating, being internationalized
and being translated
<p>
Debian supports an ever-increasing number of natural languages. Even if you are
native English speaker and do not speak any other language, it is part of your
duty as a maintainer to be aware of issues of internationalization (abbreviated
i18n because there are 18 letters between the 'i' and the 'n' in
internationalization). Therefore, even if you are ok with English only
programs, you should read most of this chapter.
<p>
According to <url id="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/intro-i18n/";
name="Introduction to i18n"> from Tomohiro KUBOTA, "I18N (internationalization)
means modification of a software or related technologies so that a software can
potentially handle multiple languages, customs, and so on in the world." while
"L10N (localization) means implementation of a specific language for an already
internationalized software."
<p>
l10n and i18n are tied, but the difficulties related to each of them are very
different. It's not really difficult to allow a program to change the language
in which texts are displayed based on user settings, but it is very time
consuming to actually translate these messages. On the other hand, setting the
character encoding is trivial, but adapting the code to use several character
encodings is a really hard problem.
<p>
Letting alone the i18n problems, where no general receipt exist, there is
actually no central infrastructure for l10n within Debian which could be
compared to the dbuild mechanism for porting. So, most of the work has to be
done manually.
<sect id="l10n-handling">How translations are handled within Debian
<p>
Handling translation of the texts contained in a package is still a manual
task, and the process depends on the kind of text you want to see translated.
<p>
For program messages, the gettext infrastructure is used most of the time.
Most of the time, the translation is handled upstream within projects like the
<url id="http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/"; name="Free Translation
Project">, the <url id="http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/"; name="Gnome
translation Project"> or the <url id="http://i18n.kde.org/"; name="KDE one">.
The only centralized resource within Debian is the <url
id="http://www.debian.org/intl/l10n/"; name="Central Debian translation
statistics">, where you can find some statistics about the translation files
found in the actual package, but no real infrastructure to ease the translation
process.
<p>
An effort to translate the package descriptions started long ago even if very
few support is offered by the tools to actually use them (ie, only APT can use
them, when configured correctly). There is nothing to do for the maintainers,
and the translators should use the <url id="http://ddtp.debian.org/";
name="DDTP">.
<p>
For debconf templates, maintainer should use the po-debconf package to ease the
work of translators, which could use the DDTP to do their work (but French and
Brazilian teams don't). Some statistics can be found both on the DDTP site
(about what is actually translated), and on the <url
id="http://www.debian.org/intl/l10n/"; name="Central Debian translation
statistics"> site (about what is integrated in the packages).
p>
For web pages, each l10n team has access to the relevant CVS, and the statistics
are available from the Central Debian translation statistics site.
<p>
For general documentation about Debian, the process is more or less the same
than for the web pages (the translators have an access to the CVS), but there is
no statistics pages.
<p>
For package specific documentation (man pages, info document, other formats),
almost everything have yet to be done. Most notably, the KDE project handles
translation of its documentation in the same way as its program messages.
Debian specific man pages begin to be handled within a <url
id="http://cvs.debian.org/manpages/?cvsroot=debian-doc"; name="specific CVS
repository"> .
<sect id="l10n-faqm">I18N & L10N FAQ for maintainers
<p>
This is a list of problems that maintainers may face concerning i18n and l10n.
While reading this, keep in mind that there is no real consensus on those
points within Debian, and that they are only advices. If you have a better idea
for a given problem, or if you disagree on some points, feel free to provide
your feedback, so that this document can be enhanced.
<sect1 id="l10n-faqm-tr">How to get a given text translated?
<p>
To translate package description or debconf templates, you have nothing to do,
the DDTP infrastructure will dispatch the material to translate to volunteers
with no need for interaction from your part.
<p>
For all other material (gettext files, man pages or other documentation), the
best solution is to put your text somewhere on Internet, and ask on debian-i18n
for a translation in the different languages. Some translation team members are
subscribed to this list, and they will take care of the translation and of the
reviewing process. Once done, you will get your translated document from them
in your mailbox.
<sect1 id="l10n-faqm-rev">How to get a given translation reviewed?
<p>
>From time to time, individuals translate some texts included in your package
and will ask you for inclusion in the package. This can become problematic if
you are not fluent in the given language. It is a good idea to send the
document to the corresponding l10n mailing list, asking for a review. Once it
has been done, you should feel more confident in the quality of the
translation, and include it fearlessly into your package.
<sect1 id="l10n-faqm-update">How to get a given translation updated?
<p>
If you have some translations of a given text laying around, each time you
update the original, you should kindly ask to the previous translator to update
his/her work to make the translation up to date with regard to the current
original text. Keep in mind that this task takes time, at least one week to get
the update reviewed and all.
<p>
If the translator is unresponsive, you may ask for help to the corresponding
l10n mailing list. If everything fails, don't forget to put a warning in the
translated document, stating that the translation is somehow outdated, and that
the reader should refer to the original document if possible.
<p>
Avoid removing completely a translation because it is outdated. An old
documentation is often better than no documentation at all for non-English
speaker.
<sect1 id="l10n-faqm-bug">How to handle a bug report concerning a translation?
<p>
The best solution may be to mark the bug as "forwarded to upstream", and
forward it to both the previous translator and his/her team (using the
corresponding debian-l10n-XXX mailing list).
<sect id="l10n-faqtr">I18N & L10N FAQ for translators
<p>
While reading this, please keep in mind that there is no general procedure
within Debian concerning those points, and that in any case, you should
collaborate with your team and the package maintainer.
<sect1 id="l10n-faqtr-help">How to help the translation effort?
<p>
Choose what you want to translate, make sure that nobody is already working on
it (using your debian-l10n-XXX mailing list), translate it, get it reviewed by
other native speakers on your l10n mailing list, and provide it to the
maintainer of the package (see next point).
<sect1 id="l10n-faqtr-inc">How to provide a translation for inclusion in a package?
<p>
Make sure your translation is correct (asking for review on your l10n mailing
list) before providing it for inclusion. It will save time for everyone, and
avoid the chaos resulting in having several versions of the same document in
bug reports.
<p>
The best solution is to fill a regular bug containing the translation against
the package. Make sure to use the 'PATCH' tag, and to not use a gravity higher
than 'wishlist', since the lack of translation never prevented a program from
running.
<sect id="l10n-best">Best current practice concerning l10n
<p>
<list>
<item>
As a maintainer, never edit the translations in any way (even to reformat the
layout) without asking to the corresponding l10n mailing list. You risk for
example to break the encoding of the file by doing so. Moreover, what you
consider as an error can be right (or even needed) in the given language.
<item>
As a translator, if you find an error in the original text, make sure to report
it. Translators are often the most attentive readers of a given text, and if
they don't report the errors they find, nobody will.
<item>
In any case, remember that the major issue with l10n is that it requires
several people to cooperate, and that it is very easy to start a flamewar about
small problems because of misunderstanding. So, if you have problems with your
interlocutor, ask for help on the corresponding l10n mailing list, on
debian-i18n, or even on debian-devel (but beware, l10n discussions very often
become flamewars on that list :)
<item>
In any case, cooperation can only be achieved with <strong>mutual respect</strong>.
</list>
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