Re: [translations] Re: How to extract PDF of translated documentation?

[Francisco Vila <paconet.org@xxxxxxxxx>]

2013/1/14 David Kastrup <dak@xxxxxxx>:
>> Probably the CG should be updated, improved and simplified.
>> I think that at the moment it would be a bit hard for a new translator
>> to get in.
>
> And I think we could make of several new ones or, probably needing
> similar measures, reactivate some old ones.
>
> It would also be nice to have some redundancy.

Redundancy of contributors, or redundancy in CG to make things much
easier to find?

>  I know that I am not
> particularly fond of the German translation since its language is partly
> awkward, in all likelihood partly due to the need of thinking of German
> language structure and vocabulary independently from the English one:
> the language flow and word choice is often stumbling a bit too close to
> the English version.  Good "literary" translations are actually
> something that does not come naturally even to people who are perfectly
> able to express themselves well in either language in separation.

Yes. Translators: please bear in mind that making a good translation
means, first of all, loving your own language. Read what you wrote and
think whether you would have written that way in the first place. Read
it aloud and decide whether it is 'good ISOLANG'. Also, do not
hesitate to disconnect, whenever it is advisable, the translation
language flow from English language flow.

> I can't actually speak for more than German here, but I would guess that
> other translations might also bit from some independent polishing up by
> people able to focus just on the target language rather than the
> translation process.

Yes but "literary" translations are personal and not always one is
willing to let someone else to amend a work you consider "in a
delicate balance" of word choice, for example. A great capacity of
consensus and team work skills are needed.

> Trevor is doing a tremendous job casting technobabble and information
> into comprehensible English, but that is quite an undertaking with slow
> progress, and I consider it somewhat comparable as it is also sort of an
> English->English process.  While he is more freely rewriting information
> than a "mere" translation usually would, the latter still needs a solid
> dose of willingness to make more sense in the translation than a literal
> translation would produce.

I understand. Sometimes I have encountered changes that did not
require any change at all in the translation.

> So how can we improve the efficiency of our current translation work
> force, and how can we make it easier for people to help in a way that
> does not step on anybody's toes and actually leads to better results?

I don't have an immediate answer and, frankly, I am a bit short of
time to think about this. Output of 'make ISOLANG=es
check-translation' is 9729 lines long.

fr --> 254
nl --> 326
it --> 943
ja --> 8346
de --> 24989 (!)
-- 
Francisco Vila. Badajoz (Spain)
www.paconet.org , www.csmbadajoz.com