[Gimp-docs] Structural changes -> gettext?

[Marco Ciampa]

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 03:00:53PM +0200, Roman Joost wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> after LGM with a lot of feedback, I would like to propose a structural
> change on how we're currently write documentation. 
> 
> I want to propose to use gettext for translations and use only one
> reference language for our manual. My last inquiry on the mailing list
> showed, that most of you were really annoyed by the mixed up languages
> in the XML files. Back in 2003, it was a new attempt of writing
> documentation, but it turned out to be hardly maintainable with
> a big learning curve for new contributors.
hip hip hurrah!
 
> Why gettext?
> It is currently a widespread technique to provide translations for
> documentation. The free software community provides a wide set of usable
> tools for translators.
> 
> Of course, I'm fully aware of the possible drawbacks of this approach.
> We need a migration strategy to migrate the current content and set a
> reference language. I'd propose English, because every author who want
> to introduce new content need to write it in English first and translate
> it afterwards.
100% agree

> After this migration, we concentrate only on one manual (instead of 8 or
> 12 currently) and we will be able get new contributors (because of the
> lower barrier and people who already provide translation for gnome-docs
> can also provide translations to our manual). We have to roles involved
> in the creation process: authors and translators. Every contributor can
> decide on which side he want to be. Even both will work, like
> currently...
I'm mostly a translator but I'll do my best to help the migration process...
 
> I would very welcome to get a lot of feedback from you. The wiki would
> probably the best place to write down a migration strategy (what will
> happen with the screenshots for example?)
> 
> PS: See also my blog entry about my thoughts on this:
>     http://romanofskiat.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/lgm-aftermathnowlgm-aftermath/
> 
> Greetings,
> -- 
> Roman Joost
> www: http://www.romanofski.de
> email: romanofski at gimp.org
Thank you very much, Roman!

bye

-- 

Marco Ciampa

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