[Mageia-i18n] Workflow for i18n translators

[Marek Laane]

2010/12/17 Wolfgang Bornath <molch.b at googlemail.com>

> Hi all,
>
> as proposed during the last i18n team meeting we need to summarize the
> various workflows of i18n contributors to be reported to
> sysadmin-Team. The aim of this mail discussion is to provide sysadmin
> team with 2 or 3 scenarios for the workflow (online and offline).
>
> First we have to keep in mind that at least one translator of each
> language has to have commit permission. But in larger groups it may be
> better to have not more than 2 or 3 translators with commit
> permission, this enforces collaboration. :)
>
> I will start from my personal (though not very large) experience with
> Mandriva po translating, give a rough overview of the options for
> mageia and then would like your comments, ideas, corrections, etc..
>
>
> In Mandriva we used to checkout svn (anonymous or with key), worked on
> the po file with whatever tool we preferred and then
>  - committed back (if permitted)
>  - or presented the file to a local team for proofreading and then to
> be committed (the best way)
>  - or sent the po file to somebody with commit access to be committed
>
> The good part was: you could work with whatever tool you preferred,
> you could work wherever you wanted without the need of a net
> connection during work.
> The bad part was: the risk of conflicts when 2 or more were working on
> the same file, nobody knew what others were doing at the same time.
>

If the team work was really working then only one or some dedicated users
had right to commit, so the chance to clash was very little. And probably
even unwise distribution of work (more than one person working on same file)
was quite rare...


>
> Now we have several possible scenarios.
>
> 1. Using Transifex online and offline
> Given the fact that transifex is able to use the svn tree, you can
> work online in transifex. This is collaboration of several people on
> the same file until the file is translated and proofread. Only after
> that it will be committed.
> If you are offline you can still get the file from tranisfex,
> translate it and upload to transifex again. I don't know how this
> actually works with Transifex. We will know more about this after
> obgr_seneca and somebody else had a look at Transifex and report back.
>
> I've heard Transifex has now online collaboration interface but never used
that. From the translator viewpoint Transifex was earlier just some kind of
central where you could see which files need working, could download them,
translate with tool of your choice and then submit it back uploading
translated file (or probably sending it to the person who had commit right -
I'm not sure because I was one-man-team :-) )
But if Transifex has now online tool, too, that's better. Only problem may
be with rights - probably it'd be not very wise to let have commit all
people. Is there possibility that one or two people have commit right,
others only suggesting rights or something?


> 2. Using svn offline
> This could be done the same way as described from the Mandriva times.
> Mind, that we do not have to use Transifex, it is not a "must". It is
> only an option but a good one, so I've heard.
>

I think it's good to have an alternative - and there may be people who for
whatever reason don't trust or don't want to use web-based tools...


>
> 3. Tools
> If you are working online you can use Transifex, if you work offline
> you can use any tool you want (lokalize, poedit, etc.)
>
> Waiting for your comments
>
> --
> wobo
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </pipermail/mageia-i18n/attachments/20101217/f75aee0a/attachment.html>