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be able to handle more complex translation.


>
>Perhaps you need to explain exactly what it is that you want, that the
>extension can't do.  If you have misunderstood, then someone will be able to
>help you.  If it really can't do it, then it will be possible to discuss
>whether it should be able to, or whether that's a different problem.
>
>Anne
>--

At a minimum, a translation extension needs to present the source
document/page and target text side-by-side in large blocks of text. The
target should allow complete wiki formatting, while the source should be
"locked" so that it can't be edited on the page. It must be very easy to
set up a source document to be translated and very easy to copy over the
formatting of that document when needed.

Beyond this, it would be very useful to be able to look up individual words
from the source document in various online dictionaries/glossaries (perhaps
clicking on a word brings up a new window with the definition(s) from
Google translate and other bilingual sources) so that the translator can
easily consult and choose among alternative translations.

In addition, a good system would include some way of accessing past
translations in other contexts, so that the translator can see how he/she
has translated the same word/phrase before, or, even better, how many other
translators have translated similar phrases (see Google's translation
toolkit or many of the translation software packages used by professionals
-- this feature is known as "translation memories")

I'm not particularly well versed in how good translation software works, so
there is likely other features that would be useful. But I think the above
covers the most basic needs.

I encourage those who need a translation extension or are involved in
programming one to look at Google's translation toolkit for an example of
the basics (Google's toolkit isn't particularly good -- the commercial
packages are much better -- but it does give an idea of what a translator
needs).

Kent