[Chandler-dev] EuroPython Localization wrap up and next steps

[Brian Kirsch]

Hello,
Well I must say I learned a great deal from the Chandler Localization  
Sprints I held on July 12th and
13th at EuroPython.

One thing that I had not considered is that localizers also make a  
very good focus group on
Chandler usability. Since none of the translators had worked in depth  
with Chandler before it was
not only an exercise in how easy is the application to localize but  
also how easy is
it for someone to start Chandler and grasp the concepts the  
application offers.

There were many issued raised at the Sprint including bugs in the  
Chandler code that are hindering a
complete localization, better tools that need to be provided for  
localization, and ways that we need to
better organize our strings in code to create a useable Chandler.pot  
for translators to work with.

I have summarized the entire experience and next steps as well as  
included
a link to the Swedish translation egg here:

http://people.osafoundation.org/bkirsch/postsprint/


Tomorrow, I will open bugs in Bugzilla for the issues preventing a  
complete localization.
The bugs will not be blockers for Preview.


Based on the feedback from the Sprint, I feel I can say with  
confidence that we need
to do a better job with our user visible strings. Specifically there  
are a number of strings
that appear in our Chandler.pot that are either inconsistent,  
redundant, gramatically incorrect,
or do not require localization.

I do not expect all the issue detailed in http:// 
people.osafoundation.org/bkirsch/postsprint/
to be addressed for Preview. However, we can start off on the right  
foot by fixing  our
Python level translatable strings to produce a better Chandler.pot  
template for translators.


It is great that OSAF has done a Localization String Freeze on  
Chandler (thanks Philippe).
This is a large step in the right direction. However, my  
recommendation at this point is
that we fix the problems in our Chandler.pot at the Python source  
level. If we don't do that
what will end up happening is all the grammatically correct strings  
which give proper context
to translators will end up in our en translation egg and not in the  
Chandler.pot which is really
where we want them.

So my proposal is to maintain a Localization Freeze for all developers.

Mimi will be the sole source of truth regarding what text should  
appear in
our Chandler.pot. I will be the interface for converting those ideas  
in to
strings in our Python code. I will also provide feedback to Mimi when  
I see
a string change that may cause localization problems.

I will have commit rights to change any strings in the Chandler code  
that need to
augment for better localization. For all commits, I will first create  
a bug and attach
a patch which will require approval by Philippe before I can check in.

  Any changes made that are reflected in the Chandler.pot will be  
merged with the
Swedish translation provided by Jonas and Jacob. In many cases, the  
Swedish strings
are not exact matches to the English strings anyway since the English  
strings were confusing.

In the Sprint, I would verbally give them the context for a piece of  
confusing text and they would
do the translation based on the intent and not the physical string  
structure. So hopefully the merge
won't be too much of a headache.

They did not include keyboard shortcuts in translated strings as  
there is a major issue
with Chandler putting these shortcuts in the English keys (the  
details are in my post sprint
  wrap up page).

I await comments on my proposal.

Even if we only ship a limited number of translations for Preview but  
get it right I would
rather do that then look amateurish by distributing a .pot file that  
is not representative of
the high quality of work done on Preview.

We have many more releases to improve the localization process and  
with our
localizations reach a wider audience for Chandler.


-Brian


Brian Kirsch
Internationalization Architect / Mail Service Engineer
Open Source Applications Foundation
543 Howard Street 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
http://www.osafoundation.org