[Foundation-l] keeping localization in mind

[Casey Brown]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Regarding the Translate extension,
> what is the current status of this? Can the Translate extension
> interface with MediaWiki messages directly or only via i18n files?

Yes, it can be.  See <http://userbase.kde.org/Translation_Workflow>
for a working example.

> Has there ever been a proposal to turn on the extension for Meta (other than
> the Bugzilla bug)? Are there any blocking issues that would prevent this
> from being feasible?

Well, getting it reviewed is a big first step, then the translation
community would have to evaluate the current process and the extension
and see what would be the best thing to do.

I'm of the opinion that both wikis and the translation extensions are
*tools* -- we should use whichever tool works best for that specific
request.  Like Amir says, the translate extension does have places
where it's awesome: repetitive surveys, fundraising messages, etc.
However, there are definitely cases where wikis work better, such as
whole pages or letters.  We also shouldn't ignore the fact that we
have even more tools that we can evaluate.  A few French users
recently worked on the survey translation in Etherpad.  This interface
allows them to all translate the same time, in real-time, with all of
their edits in different colors, and with a built-in "chat" feature.

All of the tools have their own pros and cons, and we'll have to
evaluate those.  We might end up choosing one tool for one request, a
different tool for another request, etc.  A major step is getting the
extension reviewed first, though.

-- 
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023