Tools and Resources for KDE Translators

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The following is mainly a reference section of the most important of the resources that have been described throughout this HOWTO — a reference of the files that are to be translated, of statistics about the present status of these files and of many other useful things we all need in the process of KDE translation. But there are also some additional items that have not been mentioned so far.

The i18n Server

Chances are that you know the l10n server already, simply because it is the home of this document. If you do not, you should do a look around as soon as possible since many of the resources for translators are located there, including now a "tools" page: a listing of specialized programs for translators and documenters which are available on the server. Every feedback and contribution to the material (tools, scripts, Howtos) is highly welcome as stated in the original announcement. The person in charge for the i18n server is (at the time of writing this document) Nicolas Ternisien (technical side, managing the web server and the scripts).

SVN WebSVN...

The necessary information on SVN and their graphic frontends is provided in the section Taking a Look at Available Resources and SVN.

The use of WebSVN should be pretty much self-evident.

Mailing Lists, IRC, and On-line Fora

These are the main resources in this area:

  • The mailing list for translators and documenters kde-i18n-doc@kde.org, archived with plenty of other KDE lists at lists.kde.org. Main platform for discussions, problem reports and announcements regarding KDE translation and documentation. Quite naturally, this is the most up-to-date resource of information for you. Another list that often provides useful information or has answers to questions about technical difficulties is the main developer list at kde-devel@kde.org (get in by sending a mail with "subscribe" in the subject to kde-devel-request@kde.org). There is also a specialized list for technical issues of DocBook at kde-docbook@kde.org (subscription procedure is similar to the one just mentioned).

  • The KDE chat rooms at this page often lend the opportunity to "talk directly" (sort of) to the developers. It can also be used, of course, for translator meetings.

Web and FTP Sites

There are several different flavors:

  • The original KDE web sites:

    • The most important one is www.kde.org, of course, the virtual center of all information on KDE.

    • Grouped around this center is the "family" of specialized web servers like l10n.kde.org (well, you know), lists.kde.org (searchable archives of most KDE mailing lists), bugs.kde.org (web interface for the bug reporting and tracking system), TechBase (information from and for developers of KDE), calligra.org (for the KDE office suite), www.kdevelop.org (home of the KDE programming environment), store.kde.org (info and showroom for KDE designs), and UserBase (the home for KDE users and enthusiasts).

    • From translators point of view, it will be very useful to know about release schedule of KDE projects. General information can be found at Release Schedule Guide page. Pages Schedules offer more precise data on KDE projects.

  • Localized and translated KDE web sites:

    • Those for internal use of the translation teams (with to-do lists, translation term lists, Howtos, style guides and so on) such as fr.l10n.kde.org.

      Remember: you can get such a site on the i18n server for your translation team.

    • And user sites such as the ones at International Sites.

Statistics

The following pages show the status of the translations. Normally, they are updated on a daily basis. Most of the underlying scripts are maintained by translators mailinglist. If you want to ask question about maintenance of l10n.kde.org, please refer to the corresponding appendix rather than sending it to Nicolas.

  • The status table for GUI translations of the stable shows which program GUIs are already translated and which are not in current stable version.

  • The so-called "Top 10 lists" (e.g. Top 10 for GUI in trunk) tell you the position of your team in highscore table (note that the better results there only show the number of translation and cannot be used as a criterion of their quality).

  • Tle lists of the partial translations (e.g. List of partial translations in trunk GUI) allow you to see which of your already translated GUI files are in need of a revision, untranslated files, and obsolete files that you have to remove from your language directory.

HOWTOs and Info Sites

The following seem particularly useful in the process of KDE translations:

Specialized Programs and Modules

The following tools can make your life as a KDE translator a lot easier. Do not worry if you do not understand the feature listings in the respective chapters of this HOWTO on first sight. You will understand them as soon as you know how GUI and doc translation really work.

...for GUI Translation

Currently apart from just using your favorite editor you have basically the following five options:

  • Lokalize by Nick Shaforostoff: the recommended program for GUI translation at the moment

  • Kate: powerful text editor with PO-file highlighting capabilities

  • VirTaal: Python-based PO-editor with straight-forward interface

  • poEdit: Gtk-based PO-editor

  • and the GNU Emacs PO module (po-mode.el)

Features and advantages to using some these specialized programs are listed in the appropriate section on GUI translation.

...for Doc Translation

Since the switch to PO format for the Doc Translation, there is no real difference between GUI and DocBook translation.

  • Like for GUI translation Lokalize is the recommended program for Doc Translation, too.

Dictionaries and Tools for Consistency Checking

If you know of something that should be listed here, please tell it the kde-i18n-doc mailing list,

  • Pology by Chusslove Illich: powerful framework for consistency checks, making glossaries, managing translation.

  • PO Summit is the concept that can significantly increase consistency of your team translations and save your time on merging the translations in various branches.

  • An index of on-line dictionaries and a lot of other resources can be found at www.yourdictionary.com.

  • Internal KDE tools to search and compare translations allow you to make translations consistent and coherent with translations into other languages.

Article contributed by , , and 1999-2002 Thomas Diehl thd@kde.org under the GFDL-1.2-or-later license.