[ELPA] New package proposal: org-translate

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Hi all,

I've added version 0 of a package called org-translate to ELPA, and I'm
proposing it for release. It's a translation environment based on Org.
It's not quite a full-on CAT tool, but I suppose has the potential to
get there. I'm posting the Commentary section from the library below.
Comments/suggestions/complaints very welcome!

Eric


;;; Commentary:

;; This library contains the `org-translate-mode' minor mode to be
;; used on top of Org, providing translation-related functionality.
;; It is not a full-fledged CAT tool.  It essentially does two things:
;; manages segmentation correspondences between the source text and
;; the translation, and manages a glossary which can be used for
;; automatic translation, displaying previous usages, etc.

;; Currently assumes a single file holding a single translation
;; project, with three separate headings for source text, translation,
;; and glossary (other headings will be ignored).  Each translation
;; project has five local settings, each of which also has a global
;; default value.  The first three settings are used to locate the org
;; subtrees representing source text, translation text, and glossary.
;; The fourth setting defines the segmentation strategy: the source
;; text can be segmented by sentence, paragraph, or regular
;; expression.  The fifth setting determines the character to be used
;; to delimit segments.

;; While translating, use "C-M-n" to start a new segment in the
;; translation text.  "C-M-b" and "C-M-f" will move forward and back
;; between segments, maintaining the correspondence with the source
;; text.  If the source text highlighting gets "lost", reset it with
;; "C-M-t".  To add a new glossary item, move to the source window,
;; put the region on the new item, and use M-x ogt-add-glossary-item.
;; In the translation text, add a translation of the next glossary
;; item with "C-M-y".

;; Translation projects can optionally be defined and configured in
;; the option `ogt-translation-projects' (see docstring for details)
;; though this is only useful if you're working on multiple projects
;; with different settings.

;; The functions `ogt-start-translating' and `ogt-stop-translating'
;; can be used to start and stop a translation session.  The first use
;; of the latter command will save the project in your bookmarks file,
;; after which `ogt-start-translating' will offer the project to work
;; on.

;; TODO:

;; - Generalize the code to work in text-mode as well as Org,
;;   using 2C-mode instead of Org subtrees.
;; - Support multi-file translation projects.
;; - Import/export TMX translation databases.
;; - Provide for other glossary backends: eieio-persistent, xml,
;;   sqlite, etc.
;; - Provide integration with `org-clock': set a custom property on a
;;   TODO heading indicating that it represents a translation project.
;;   Clocking in both starts the clock, and sets up the translation
;;   buffers.  Something like that.