Re: [Phpgroupware-developers] Translators doc

[Dave Hall]

On Mon, 2004-07-26 at 22:07, Thomas Viehmann wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> Dave Hall (address@hidden) wrote:
> > Think we desperately need a translators guide/howto.  I am not offering
> > to do it, or to put time lines on it, just suggesting that if someone
> > want to write one, please do.
> 
> I'm not going to take another task where I don't perform timely (nor do I know
> anything about translating), but from looking at how translation is done
> elsewhere, I did ask myself whether it would be a good idea to switch to a
> .po-scheme as source for the translation files. I know that po-files has been
> discussed (and shot down) before, but as far as I understand it, the idea then
> was to use po files instead of the database while I'm just asking myself
> whether or not translators would benefit from being able to work with po files
> (there are, after all, a few tools that aim to facilitate translations, and
> someone must have found them to be of great enough help to write them).
> Whether or not phpGW should generate the current lang files or import po files
> into the database is another issue.

gettext is good, and is what dan and jengo decide to go for in
experimental.  There are several issues (imho) which need to be
considered:

* php-gettext support in distros
  - several distro have issues with gettext - iirc RH > 9 and mdk
  - debian woody+ is ok ... from my experience

* performance
  - a db supports indicies
  - db query results can be cached

* learning curve
  - gettext is a GNU standard
  - used in several major projects, and various smaller ones :)


I am not trying to shoot down the proposal to move to gettext based
translations.  I just want to make sure we go for the optimal solution. 
I would be more than happy to start a discussion on this, as far as i am
concered (is that AFAIAC?) everything in HEAD is open for discussion,
except xslt ;)

> In my severely limited translation exposure, the Debian translation project
> did opt to do translation of their configuration stuff via po-files and
> generate the needed files from those.

Your exposure is better than mine, I just know the url for babelfish.  I
also know that we have had several debs translations submitted
recently.  I think minimizing the learning curve for translators would
be a good idea.

> 
> Just a thought, my apologies if it's all noise.

Your contributions are welcomed, especially as our deb packager.

I will re add the translation team list to the CC, as they are the
people who do the translations :)

Cheers

Dave