Zé Fontainhas 4:46 pm on April 12, 2011

A matter for debate Jenia a WordPress com…

A matter for debate:

Jenia, a WordPress.com translator for ru_RU, has suggested an automatic way (instead of the manual-whenever-each-translator-remembers-to-do-it) to import .org stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. to .com. The logic is pretty simple and in the same vein as the fact that WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ uses the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ software (of which, for all purposes, translations are a part).

This has implications of several kinds, the least of which are technical (that’s the easy part), mostly related to ‘ownership’ (for lack of a better word) or at least ‘control’ of translations. From my point of view, it’s a question of how the flow would look like so as to be completely peaceful and transparent.

What is everyone’s opinion?

Jenia 5:05 pm on April 12, 2011

One thought that comes to mind is to publish dot-org translations under dot-com projects as “suggested” by e.g. “GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org.” to highlight them as automatically imported and give the dot-com validators a chance to review and edit/approve them (suppose the dot-com validators find typos or inaccuracies? – now, wouldn’t it be nice to “bind” those stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. so that if they are in the same place in the code, they are translated in the same way everywhere – but I might overcomplicating things here…).

Then, in case of non-existing or inactive validators for dot-com projects, translations would be auto-approved after a period of time (a week?) and be deployedDeploy Launching code from a local development environment to the production web server, so that it's available to visitors..

In terms of ownership/control – from what I have seen, the structure is by design rather loose – who ever raises their hand, assumes ownership. A bit like with WordPress, however contributes most, both to the translations and the debate, ultimately shapes the decisions.
- Zé 6:10 pm on April 12, 2011
  
  I might overcomplicating things here…
  
  Erm… maybe, yes. I suggest we leave that bit under “future release”
  
  I like the idea of auto-approving .org translations for those that don’t exist/have no validators on .com
Jenia 5:48 pm on April 12, 2011

@Zé: could you clarify the point you brought up about translations being duplicated? E.g. if there is “Next” occurring once in the dot-org translation – would that be replicated whenever the stringString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. “Next” appears in the dot-com translation? And what if there are multiple instances of “Next” in the dot-org translation, will only the first (or the most recent, or whatever) be used?

I guess it would help me to see an example 🙂

In case of multiple matches, I would suggest checking for cases, context labels (I wish there were more!) and again, suggesting the auto-translations as “fuzzy” or “pending approval”.
- Zé 6:07 pm on April 12, 2011
  
  Not that complicated 🙂
  
  We harvest stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. from .com code onto GP and if a stringString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. already exists it’s not duplicated. I.e. if we have a “Next” for Twenty Ten, we won’t have an extra “Next” for Duster. Must be an exact match, though.
Kenan 9:57 pm on April 12, 2011

It would be nice to have this automated. I periodicaly upload bbPressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org. and wp.org translations to the wp.com in Bosnian. W have no problems with the terminology (we have a web site for adopted terms). I believe that terminology in other languages that have different teams for .org and .com is pretty much the same (some minor differencies) but, to prevent any possible disagreements, maybe the imported translations should be marked as “waiting” and a notification sent to the validatorValidator See translation editor. to have them checked.
- Jenia 6:35 am on April 13, 2011
  
  @Kenan: would you mind sharing a link to the web site that you use to keep track of accepted terminology? We have a simple list for that in Russian, and I’d be interested to see what formats/processes other localizationLocalization Localization (sometimes shortened to "l10n") is the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language, culture, and desired local "look-and-feel." teams have adopted.
  - Zé 12:46 pm on April 13, 2011
    
    Example from Brasil: http://wp-brasil.org/traducoes/glossario
  - Kenan 7:14 pm on April 13, 2011
    
    Here you go: http://bosanskirjecnik.info/
Milan Dinić 10:03 pm on April 12, 2011

As always, the best would be to leave options so that maintainers can choose it, eg. should stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. be approved or not, who will be the owner, etc.

It’s impossible to satisfy everyones needs so having options simplifies things.

Jenia on original forum asked:

– fellow translators: what shortcuts have you found to speed up your translation process? Any tips and tricks on tools, process, etc that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them!

Since I’m validatorValidator See translation editor. on both .org and .com, those strings that are same (ie. in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.) I immediately update for both projects and then I’m sure that translations are consistent.
- Zé 10:09 pm on April 12, 2011
  
  Would something in the form of a switchable option work, in that case? À la “click this checkbox to have your stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. automatically exported to WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/” or similar.
  - Zé 10:09 pm on April 12, 2011
    
    Or vice-versa on the .com side, actually
  - Milan Dinić 10:17 pm on April 12, 2011
    
    Yes, but there should be defined rules what will happen when you check that option and those rules should be visible to users since there is no undo in GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org..
    
    And I’m actually not sure where should we have this, since .com generally uses code from .org trunk which means stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. on .com can be visible for long time even before string freezeString freeze The term "string freeze" is used by the core team to mark the end of changes to the strings of an upcoming release. A string freeze also means that there will be no more strings added to the core project. Sometimes a string freeze has two phases a soft freeze and a hard freeze. A string freeze is announced on the Polyglots blog by the current release lead..
    - Zé 10:27 pm on April 12, 2011
      
      +1 on the visibility of the rules, of course. My premise for this, as stated above was for the process “to be completely peaceful and transparent”. As to the where and how, it’s open to debate.
- Jenia 6:37 am on April 13, 2011
  
  @Milan: how do you update stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. for both projects when they occur in both dot-com and dot-org versions? Manually in GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org., or uploading .po file to both GlotPress projects, or something else?
  - Milan Dinić 3:54 pm on April 15, 2011
    
    Since I’m only validatorValidator See translation editor. at both places, I translate in Poedit so I open both files simultaneously and later do SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/. commit / GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org. import.
Wacław 3:44 pm on April 13, 2011

This is a really good idea. I guess that for cases where there are separate translation teams for .com and .org, a switch on .com would be nice, for the .com translators to decide whether they want this kind of thing (so that the .com team wouldn’t get annoyed at having their translations overridden.)
Sergey Biryukov 3:19 pm on April 14, 2011

It’s been a long time since we first synchronized ru_RU translations for .org and .com back in 2008. I wrote a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party to compare .mo filesMO files MO, or Machine Object is a binary data file that contains object data referenced by a program. It is typically used to translate program code, and may be loaded or imported into the GNU gettext program. This is the format used in a WordPress install. These files are normally located inside .../wp-content/languages/ 🙂

At the time (WordPress 2.6, I think), there were some terms which needed to be translated differently in WP and WPMU (Archive, Enabled, Latest, etc.) They have the right context labels after the merge, however we should probably make sure that any other terms with multiple meanings also have the right context labels.

Now that we have GlotPressGlotPress GlotPress is the translation management software that powers Translate.WordPress.org. More information is available at glotpress.org., it’s a good idea to simplify the synchronization process.

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A matter for debate Jenia a WordPress com…

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