[Mailman-i18n] Using Pootle

[Barry Warsaw]

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Thanks Cristobal and Clytie for helping set this up.  I encourage all  
translators to give this a chance so we can decide whether to move to  
it officially, try something else, or keep the status quo.

I've added a NEWS item on the wiki pointing to this Pootle instance,  
and I've added a link on the i18n page.  I'd really like to get  
feedback from folks about whether we should switch or not.

Ideally, anything we move to would make both translators and  
developers lives easier.  For the latter, Pootle offers a possibility  
here, since we can hook it up to Bazaar and have it get automatic  
updates of the .pot file.  Although I haven't found it yet, I'm hoping  
there's one button Mark or I could push to get all the current  
translation updates whenever we're ready to make a new release.

But (not speaking for Mark), I think it would be okay for us to go  
through a little more pain if Pootle is a clear win for translators.   
The current status quo is far from ideal for all of us.

For the record, the other option is Launchpad translations.  Should we  
do a fair bake-off between them?

On Apr 22, 2008, at 10:23 AM, Clytie Siddall wrote:

>> I'd like to have some ability for cross-project pollination.  The  
>> idea being that it's good to have Vietnamese experts who contribute  
>> to lots of open source projects,  and can learn about Mailman, with  
>> an easy way to share translations across projects. I don't know if  
>> that's a typical way translators work though, or if they would find  
>> it a benefit to have such a system.
>
> I agree with you, and I've been trying to work out some way we can  
> cross-pollinate effectively. As it is, I meet the same people on a  
> lot of the i18n mailing lists, but there's no coordination of all  
> that skill and interest. The Translate Wiki, which is associated  
> with Pootle, tries to create central resources for translators.  
> Maybe we could work out something with the Wordforge people.

There's an interesting issue which came up recently regarding  
Launchpad translations.  Cross-pollination has to carefully consider  
copyright assignments across projects.  For example, Mailman could  
accept translations from any translator that has assigned their  
copyrights to the FSF.  It could also probably accept translations  
from any other GPL'd program.  But if translated strings were  
suggested from a non-GPL'd program, I think we might not be able to  
accept such strings.

Ultimately, it's up to the translator to understand and enforce the  
rules.  But it could cause the Mailman project (or at least the non- 
English versions of it) a lot of pain if there were license violations  
here.

> OK, there's lots of info on how to run and use Pootle here:
>
> http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/pootle/index
>
> If there's any info that you can't find, or any other problems,  
> please ask on the Pootle mailing list (details at the address  
> above). The devs are very helpful.
>
> Using Pootle is a really good step, because it removes a lot of the  
> barriers to participation in transation. All a translator needs is a  
> browser and a Net connection, and s/he can do a few strings at any  
> time, from anywhere. You can also do part, or all of your work  
> offline sometimes or always, if you prefer: Pootle is a tool  
> provided to give you more choices, not less.
>
> For offline editing, Linux and Windows [1] translators can also try  
> the new Wordforge editor (cousin to Pootle), Pootling:
>
> http://www.khmeros.info/drupal/?q=en/download/Translation_Editor
>
> I've had good feedback on it from some new translators. :)

Clytie, again, thanks for your leadership here.  Cristobal (apologies  
for the missing accent character ;), thanks for your technological  
assistance here too!

- -Barry

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