Anders Wegge Jakobsen wegge@wegge.dk writes:
Six weeks ago I became involved in an argument about translation of the mediawiki software. I made the comment below.
Yes, the obvious solution is that I maintain a private translation; at the same time one or more of the admins at dawiki plays catchup, whenever the inerface suddenly start sprouting english words, and the rest of the world get to see the worst of OSS. Everyone is happy.
Unfortunately, it have proven to be true. No substantial changes to the danish localization have happened since then. Since I have cooled of a bit since then, and my prediction have proven true, I'll try to summarize the problems with localization on translatewiki as I see them:
* With the current setup, translators will need to access the code, to actually see what cryptical strings like 'You have not specified target revision or revi sions to perform this function on.' actually mean.
* That a web interface exists does not equal that a large horde of skilled translators will be attracted.
* Noone likes to see others credited with their work.
This is not an attempt to renew a heated argument. The idea of providing a relative easy-to-use interface for translation work is better than having no one translating the interface into any particular language. But in my opinion, it is not at present time a substitute for having someone wit at least rudimentary PHP coding skills doing the translation and submitting patches or direct commits to svn.
And yes, the issue of crediting work was what angered me most. It still is, and unless I'm the one individual in the world with the thinnest skin on this matter, this issue will arise again.