[Koha-translate] Web translation beta tester pack of suggestions

[Pablo A. Bianchi]

Hi!

On February of 2007 Joshua offers me to be a translate.koha.org beta
tester. Some weeks later I sent a "pack of suggestions", but I had
only receive a "I will answer later". Trying luck some months later
with Paul Poulain I'd receive "I mostly agree with you. But libLime
host that web site".

So now, I try luck with the list, to see if there is someone out there
who could see this things...

The "pack of suggestions":

- I didn't find some features detailed on Kartouche's site changelog:
"The user table selection page now has a switch to show untranslated
records only", ie, the option for showing only the strings that remain
untranslated.
- Nicer colors: That intense pink is very discomfort. Light blues
(like Apple Aqua/Crystal style) or greens (like Kartouche site) could
be much more appropriate.
- If a string to translate has already been translated (by a human),
the system could fill suggestion box:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_memory
- It's possible to avoid strings like "%s %s (%s)"?
- It's possible to avoid strings very similar, like "Your books" and
"Your books:"?
- Sometimes people could just forget a "%s", or the ":" at the end. A
JavaScript function could count the occurrences of "%s"s on the text
to translate and the suggestion, and alert with a "Are you sure?" if
are difference, or with PHP:
     if ( substr_count($originalText, '%s') ==
substr_count($suggestionText, '%s') ) { ...
- It's impossible to take out all the ":" at the end of the strings?
Since they will be there on any language.
- Although I try to avoid them, sometimes I note errors just after
submitting (specially because line feeds). Pressing back, fixing and
submitting again I'm not sure if it works. This bring problems? Isn't
better a second page (a "Are you sure?" one) to review well all the
translations (with the same font on both columns, for better
comparing)? Also because some impatient translators could hurry to
submit changes, because of all the work remaining. This could be
merged with a wiki style, with users, a discuss section for each
template and/or string, a way to rollback, anyone can know who make
what and when.
- The height attribute of input textarea html tag can be dynamically
generated with the size of the string to translate, making usually the
web page more compact (visually it looks like there is less to
translate), and is better to work with big strings without scrolling:
    <?php
    $sizeFactor = floor(strlen($stringToTranslate01)/43) + 1; // Will
be [2..n] rows on Firefox, [1..n] on IE
    ?>
    <textarea cols="30" rows="<?php echo $sizeFactor; ?>" wrap="soft"
name="stringToTrans">
- Font on suggestion textbox could be Verdana like the string to
translate, to visually better comparing.
- With no much work the table could be optimized, more tidy.
- It would be VERY useful a field "notes/discuss" for each string, to
explain why the translator make choose that words and no others. Like
wiki, it could have the possibility to sign the post with a nickname
or the ip. For example, with words like "issue" (even searching
http://lu.com/odlis/search.cfm) we have a lot of trouble, due this
word have a lot of acceptations depending the context.
Moreover, there it could be a read-only note in English, explaining
shortly the context of the phrase, to help the translators of all
languages!
- Who moderates each language?? A group assigned, anyone...?
- A tool to filter the list of files by language. A "Select
language..." combobox, or a way to separate better each group of
language files. Flags are a possibility too.
- How it is managed the work with slightly modified templates, when
comes a newer version of Koha?
- If I finish translating all, and all strings approved, how much time
more or less is necessary to the language be full available on Koha
GIT, or in the official version? Exist a "limit day" on each release?
- On Koha's translation help (
http://translate.koha.org/remember.php?lg=en) are references to
Kyfieithu, and it is oriented to KDE translation and not to Koha or
any other software. Items like 5th could be completely eliminated.
- Error messages (like a 404 or entering wrong the contributor without
making translations) are wrong displayed (on Firefox 2.0.0.14* and IE,
see attached screenshot).  (Sent to Joshua Ferraro.)
- On "Start translating!", using Firefox v2.0.0.14* column "Lines
Awaiting Moderation" appears outside of the gray square.
*updated

More, added recently:
- Pootle isn't better than Kartouche? Kartouche project seems dead.
Pootle: http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/pootle/features

I have some other questions, about which web-based tools use for
translating documents in XML (Pootle?), or how update are the
documents in www.kohadocs.org....

Regards,
Pablo

University of Buenos Aires
Argentina