Hmmm.
I think you are taking this quite defensively.
My principle observation is simply that currently this extension is NOT set
up to make it easy for translating anything but interfaces. It doesn't seem
to have anything that helps explain how it would work otherwise, and there
are NO examples of translating anything that isn't an interface.
A large part of the problem here is that the translation needs of someone
like me are quite different from the translation needs of someone who is
translating an interface.
My only reason for commenting is that you seem to be pushing a solution
that isn't adequate to the job described -- you seem to believe that a
system set up for translating interfaces should be adequate for translating
documents -- and you haven't explained how it IS adequate. Come back to me
when you have the explanation on the web somewhere and have an example so
that I can see how it works.
I'm not really looking for a solution at this point, so yes, I only see
problems. What I do use on my wiki (combination of proofread page and
doublewiki extensions) and elsewhere (Google translation toolbox) is
adequate, but not ideal. Until I see something that is better, and,
ideally, involves the input from someone who actually does the translation
of documents (or better for me, whole books), I can't see a reason to waste
much time looking through something that is only presented as a solution or
"opportunity" for those who have completely different needs than I have.
Kent
At 8:12 AM +0100 11/20/09, you wrote:
Right. So I'll give it one last shot before you go
try and create your own
extension in the next two years. It appears to me like you are thinking in
problems instead of opportunities.
Let me translate some of the remarks you made, and provide some more
information:
(1) 'to set up a page to be translated, you have to not only set it up as a
project, but break the parts of the page into individual translateable
chunks': Opportunity speak: Wow. This is flexible. You can choose to put
translate tags around the whole page content, where a parser will break it up
for you, but it is also possible to keep the awkward formatting away from
translators, and selectively keep out that formatting from the translatable
content. Would there be any chance that this can be done automatically? My
reply: sure. We are a little short on developers, but we are certainly
prepared to help you further develop on the Translate extension if you are
interested and able to.
(2) 'whole thing seems extremely cumbersome and inconvenient': Opportunity
speak: I don't understand fully how to do this. At first glance it looks hard.
Can you provide some additional information? My reply: sure. We'd be glad to
help you. Please join us on Freenode's #mediawiki-i18n and we will see if we
can get any misunderstandings out of the way.
(3) 'translatewiki.net currently doesn't have ANY documents or webpage
projects, only software interfaces': Opportunity speak: I cannot find which
content pages are available for translation at the moment. Do you have some
links? My reply: sure. See
http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:PageTranslation
(4) 'the documentation needs to be re-written to make it clear how to use it'.
Opportunity speak: I cannot find the documentation. Where can I find it? My
reply: Ouch. You got us there. Having the little development resources that we
have, we have always invested in adding and improving functionality, and
documentation is outdated at best. On
mediawiki.org it is not present. We
would appeaciate help in that area. Also see (2).
Cheers!
Siebrand Mazeland
-----Original Message-----
From: mediawiki-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Kent S. Larsen
II
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 4:22 AM
To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list
Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Translating wiki articles
Yes, I checked out the link.
As far as I can tell, in order to set up a page to be translated, you have
to not only set it up as a project, but break the parts of the page into
individual translateable chunks.
The whole thing seems extremely cumbersome and inconvenient -- it really is
set up to be used for translating a software interface and not actual
documents.
As far as I can tell,
translatewiki.net currently doesn't have ANY
documents or webpage projects, only software interfaces.
If I'm wrong about this, then the documentation needs to be re-written to
make it clear how to use it.
Kent
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