[jbosstools-dev] Translation workflow and string freezes (was Re: Japanese translations for JBoss Tools committed to svn)

[Sean Flanigan]

Max Rydahl Andersen wrote:

>> If you're writing a blog post about these translations, it wouldn't hurt
>> to tell people where they can help with the translations, whether
>> Japanese or another language:
>>    http://bitbucket.org/seanf/jbosstools-l10n/
>>    
> 
> What is that ? a git/mercury fork of just the properties files which you 
> merge into JBT trunk once in a while ?

Pretty much.  The props from JBT trunk get converted into PO/POT for the
translators to work on, and then they can be converted back into props
when ready.

For now, it's a manual process run once in a while.  For instance:

1. Developers work on JBoss Tools, changing anything they like
2. String freeze is enacted (but I think we can get away with a soft freeze)
3. I run prop2gettext, updating jbosstools-l10n in bitbucket from JBT trunk
4. Translators translate the PO files and push to bitbucket
5. I pull from bitbucket, run gettext2prop and check
*_{ja,de,es,...}.properties into JBT trunk

I say bitbucket, but I'm hoping we'll get common hosting for all
jboss-L10n projects [1], probably in svn form, and thus not on bitbucket.

And it's only for trunk right now, but there's no reason it can't work
for branches too.  Perhaps a translation workflow tool/server like flies
will be ready before we get that far.

By "soft freeze", I mean that developers should *try* to avoid
unnecessary English changes (thus avoiding wasted translation effort),
but if necessary, we can handle changes without causing major problems
(such as SVN conflicts).

The most important thing is to have the developers avoid changing the
*non-English* properties files, at least during the string freeze.  Or
at all, if possible.  No one programmer can update all the translated
properties anyway.  I think it's better to go through the L10n project
for all translation work, and work with the other translators.

If the translators don't change the English files, and developers don't
change the non-English properties files, we shouldn't get any conflicts
between the two repositories.

Remember: Properties files were never meant for editing translations [2].


Sean.

[1] http://lists.jboss.org/pipermail/jboss-l10n/2009-May/000000.html
[2] https://fedorahosted.org/tennera/wiki/PropertiesFiles


-- 
Sean Flanigan

Senior Software Engineer
Engineering - Internationalisation
Red Hat

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