Revision as of 08:52, 9 June 2006

Introduction

Community based, user oriented

The translations of the various documents focusing on Inkscape rely on the work of volunteers. Motivation for this work can range from the simple pleasure to contribute to take the opportunity of learning a lot about Inkscape and translation processes. It is very important not to forget that Inkscape is an open source, community based and user oriented software, which implies that software developpers/contributors are generaly users. It also implies that the translation efforts are also user oriented, with a strong focus on interface, user documentation and website.

Guidelines/workflow

Contact to a local translation group, to get support and help on your language. Rather than working alone, you should work with an experienced translation team for your language. Thus you will benefit from their knowledge, as well as being able to communicate with them on your own mother tongue. Moreover, translation teams use to have style guidelines and a standarized vocabulary for technical terms that you should be aware of. There may be many communities working on translations for your own language, but a good start point is subscribing to your local GNOME translation team or KDE translation team.
Subscribe to Inkscape translator mailing list. By subscribing on Inkscape's translator list you will be able to ask for help on some questions more related to Inkscape issues to other Inkscape translators, as well as the mantainers.
Get files for your language. If you only want to translate the interface messages, you can get the files from Inkscape's svn repository web interface. Besides getting files from web interface, you can obtain the full repository; instructions on how to do this are found here. See section #Translatable_content for which files you have to modify to translate each part of Inkscape.
Submit finished work to patch tracker. Finished translations must be sent to patch tracker and/or mailing list in order to be integrated into the trunk. You will need a Sourceforge.net account to commit patches to Inkscape's patch tracker. Before sending a file, remember to check that the file you are submitting doesn't have syntax errors that would break the building process.
Send a mail on the translator mailing list. Your contribution will be reviewed/commited as soon as possible.

Best practices

Best case for a good translation : translate from English to your mother tongue.

Test the behavior of the interface before starting translation

Translatable content

Inkscape's translation effort covers many areas, from aplication UI itself to web pages and tutorials. This is a summary of all those areas, ordered by priority.

These tasks, rather than being for hackers only, can be achieved by most software enthusiasts, whether they have a technological background or just plain users. The main requirement is the wish to provide support for Inkscape on your language: the technology required for do that has been developed in a simple approach, and it involves mainly text files and applications used to verify its syntax. Supporting applications exists to make this tasks even easier.

User interface

PO files contain the strings for the Inkscape user interface (main software and extentions). A PO file is a text file which contains the original English message and its translation. That's why it is obviously the translation to start with.

See [InterfaceTranslation] page for detailed information on the PO files.

Tutorials

As you know, Inkscape comes with some very nice SVG tutorials. By translating them, users will learn how to use the application, as well its tips and tricks.

See [Document Translation] page for detailed information on translating tutorials.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts

Inkscape is proud of having keyboard and mouse shortcuts for almost any funtionality. Those shotcuts can help you increase your drawing productivity/efficiency. The map of the default shortcuts is embedded in the interface (help menu) next to the tutorials, and can also be accessed from the web site.

See [Document Translation] page for detailed information on translating shortcuts.

Windows installer

High value for users, even if the installation process of Inkscape is quite simple, translating the Windows installer helps a lot potential users feeling good with Inkscape.

See [Interface Translation] page for detailed information on translating Windows installer.

Templates

The default template of Inkscape document can be localized to make the localization consistent. Localized can be size of the default document and also the name of default layer.

See [InterfaceTranslation] page for detailed information on default document's template.

Man pages

The man pages consist in a standard user documentation, available from the command line on Unix systems simply type "man inkscape" from the prompt of a command window).

Some distributions also generate a browsable (html) man page, accessible from dedicated help shortcut.

The man page of Inkscape provides some insightful information about the software, aspecially foused on operations that do not require GUI (example: export to png from the command line, or extract one object from a svg file).

See [DocumentTranslation] page for detailed information on translating man pages.

Release notes

Translating release notes helps giving a lot of visibility to Inkscape

- give a general overview of the possibilities of the software to potential users

- can be used for local marketing (local Free Software/Linuw/Graphics oriented web sites, articles in fanzines, e-magazines and even magazines...)

See [WebSiteTranslation] page for detailed information on translating release notes.

User manual

Some members of the Inkscape community are also focusing on an [user manual]. This document can be read as a reference document for advanced users and as a good introduction to the functionalities of Inkscape by everyone.

See [DocumentTranslation] page for detailed information on translating the user manual.

Web pages, News and Wiki

English is generaly the exchange-tongue of developppers, and developper/user documentation is mainly written in English.

Translation efforts should be first oriented on user documentation.

You can take a look at the [WebSiteTranslation] page for detailed information about how to translate the web content of Inkscape

See [WebSiteTranslation] page for detailed information on translating the web site, news and wiki.

See the [main wiki page of Inkscape] to get some examples (Spanish and German) of the translation of this wiki

Others

Text files found in the inkscape directory ...

Status

See this [dedicated page]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-= Tutorial translations =
+= Introduction =
+== Community based, user oriented ==
+The translations of the various documents focusing on Inkscape rely on the work of volunteers.
+Motivation for this work can range from the simple pleasure to contribute to take the opportunity of learning a lot about Inkscape and translation processes.
+It is very important not to forget that Inkscape is an open source, community based and user oriented software, which implies that software developpers/contributors are generaly users. It also implies that the translation efforts are also user oriented, with a strong focus on interface, user documentation and website.
-Inkscape tutorial sources are in [[DocBook]] format, with illustrations in SVG. If you want to translate one or more tutorials, first download the [[DocBook]] source here:
+== Guidelines/workflow ==
-http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/inkscape/doc-docbook/trunk/
+# '''Contact to a local translation group, to get support and help on your language'''. Rather than working alone, you should work with an experienced translation team for your language. Thus you will benefit from their knowledge, as well as being able to communicate with them on your own mother tongue. Moreover, translation teams use to have style guidelines and a standarized vocabulary for technical terms that you should be aware of. There may be many communities working on translations for your own language, but a good start point is subscribing to your local [http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/teams.html GNOME translation team] or [http://l10n.kde.org/teams/ KDE translation team].
+# '''Subscribe to''' [https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-translator Inkscape translator mailing list]. By subscribing on Inkscape's translator list you will be able to ask for help on some questions more related to Inkscape issues to other Inkscape translators, as well as the mantainers.
+# '''Get files for your language'''. If you only want to translate the interface messages, you can get the files from [http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/inkscape/ Inkscape's svn repository web interface]. Besides getting files from web interface, you can obtain the full repository; instructions on how to do this are found [http://inkscape.org/svn.php here]. See section [[#Translatable_content]] for which files you have to modify to translate each part of Inkscape.
+# '''Submit finished work to patch tracker'''. Finished translations must be sent to patch tracker and/or mailing list in order to be integrated into the trunk. You will need a Sourceforge.net account to commit patches to [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=93438&atid=604308 Inkscape's patch tracker]. Before sending a file, remember to check that the file you are submitting doesn't have syntax errors that would break the building process.
+# '''Send a mail on the translator mailing list'''. Your contribution will be reviewed/commited as soon as possible.
-Each tutorial is in its own subdirectory. You need the *.xml file, for example basic/tutorial-basic.xml. Get it and simply replace all English text in it with the text in your language, preserving all XML markup. See README at that location for some notes on markup.
+== Best practices ==
-* If there's already such a file in CVS, you can edit it instead :) If there's no xml file at the above location but there's a translation of this tutorial in SVG format (in share/tutorials in Inkscape distribution), you'll need to convert it to [[DocBook]] (and probably update). Conversion can be done simply by: select the text blocks of an SVG tutorial in Inkscape, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V in your text editor, then add the markup.
+Best case for a good translation : translate from English to your mother tongue.
-* Save your file as <original name>.<language suffix>.xml, for example basic/tutorial-basic.es.xml for Spanish.
+Test the behavior of the interface before starting translation
-* Do not use symbolic entities like &amp;aacute; (they're not defined in XML without a DTD). Instead use either numeric entities such as &amp;#225; or simply write your text in UTF-8.
+= Translatable content =
-* Most illustrations don't need translations, so you leave the references to them from English XML intact. If however an illustration has some text that you want to translate, open the illustration file in Inkscape (e.g. basic/basic-f12.svg), edit it as needed, and save under a different name (e.g. basic/basic-f12-es.svg). Then change the filename reference in the XML source appropriately.
+Inkscape's translation effort covers many areas, from aplication UI itself to web pages and tutorials. This is a summary of all those areas, ordered by priority.
-* When finished, run [http://xmlsoft.org/xmllint.html xmllint] on your file to make sure it's well-formed.
+These tasks, rather than being for hackers only, can be achieved by most software enthusiasts, whether they have a technological background or just plain users. The main requirement is the wish to provide support for Inkscape on your language: the technology required for do that has been developed in a simple approach, and it involves mainly text files and applications used to verify its syntax. Supporting applications exists to make this tasks even easier.
-* Send the file to Joshua Andler <scislac at users dot sf dot net>, and he'll convert it to SVG and HTML and upload it to SVN and the web site.
+== User interface ==
-* If after that you want to make any changes, download the file from the above location again, because it may have changed compared to the one you have.
+PO files contain the strings for the Inkscape user interface (main software and extentions). A PO file is a text file which contains the original English message and its translation. That's why it is obviously the translation to start with.
-==Tools==
+See  [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/InterfaceTranslation#Interface_Translation InterfaceTranslation]] page for detailed information on the PO files.
-* xml2po in gnome-doc-utils (http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/gnome-doc-utils/)
-* OmegaT - http://www.omegat.org/omegat/omegat_en/omegat.html
-* Transolution - http://transolution.python-hosting.com/
-= Interface translations =
+== Tutorials ==
-If you're interested in helping with providing interface translation for Inkscape,
+As you know, Inkscape comes with some very nice SVG tutorials. By translating them, users will learn how to use the application, as well its tips and tricks.
-here are a few links to help you getting started:
-    http://www.gtkmm.org/gtkmm2/docs/tutorial/html/ch20s03.html
+See [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/DocumentationTranslation#Tutorial_Translation Document Translation]] page for detailed information on translating tutorials.
-    http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/l10n-guide/
-    http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/style-guides/
-    http://developer.gnome.org/doc/tutorials/gnome-i18n/developer.html
-Download the .po file for your language from here:
+== Keyboard and mouse shortcuts ==
-    http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/inkscape/inkscape/trunk/po/
+Inkscape is proud of having keyboard and mouse shortcuts for almost any funtionality. Those shotcuts can help you increase your drawing productivity/efficiency. The map of the default shortcuts is embedded in the interface (help menu) next to the tutorials, and can also be accessed from the web site.
-If a .po file for your language does not yet exist, then create one
+See [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/DocumentationTranslation#Keyboard_and_mouse_translation Document Translation]] page for detailed information on translating shortcuts.
-by copying the inkscape.pot file that gets generated when you run make
-in the codebase.
-Edit the file to add or correct translations of the English strings, and
+== Windows installer ==
-then upload your work via the [[SourceForge]] patch tracker:
-    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=93438&atid=604308
+High value for users, even if the installation process of Inkscape is quite simple, translating the Windows installer helps a lot potential users feeling good with Inkscape.
-(Check the Upload checkbox and add your file or patch.)
+See [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/InterfaceTranslation#Windows_installer_translation Interface Translation]] page for detailed information on translating Windows installer.
+== Templates ==
-Here's how to make an absolutely up-to-date translation (in case the PO file in SVN is not up-to-date enough):
+The default template of Inkscape document can be localized to make the localization consistent. Localized can be size of the default document and also the name of default layer.
-. update your local copy of Inkscape in the usual way: "svn update"
+See [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/InterfaceTranslation#Default_template_translation InterfaceTranslation]] page for detailed information on default document's template.
-. "./autogen.sh"
-. "./configure"
-. enter the "po" directory: "cd po"
-. generate the current PO template: "intltool-update --pot"
-. merge your existing translations into the new POT file (inkscape.pot):
-    "msgmerge your_latest_PO_file inkscape.pot > new_PO_file"
-Then you just need to complete the translations in the PO file that was
+== Man pages ==
-created in step 6.
+The man pages consist in a standard user documentation, available from the command line on Unix systems simply type "man inkscape" from the prompt of a command window).
+Some distributions also generate a browsable (html) man page, accessible from dedicated help shortcut.
-If you want to update ALL .po files in po/, cd there and run:
+The man page of Inkscape provides some insightful information about the software, aspecially foused on operations that do not require GUI (example: export to png from the command line, or extract one object from a svg file).
- make update-po
+See [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/DocumentationTranslation#Man_pages DocumentTranslation]] page for detailed information on translating man pages.
-== Tools for translators ==
+== Release notes ==
-* emacs' po-mode (contained in the gettext distribution; the version in po-utils is old)
+Translating [http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_Notes release notes] helps giving a lot of visibility to Inkscape
-* kbabel (http://i18n.kde.org/tools/kbabel/)
-* gtranslator (http://gtranslator.sourceforge.net/)
-* poEdit (http://poedit.sourceforge.net/)
-== A few important things to remember ==
+- give a general overview of the possibilities of the software to potential users
-* Some strings that can ambiguous or having several meanings according to different contexts may have a context prefix : "Context|Amibiguous string". In this case, simply translate "Ambiguous string", the "Context|" string is just a not to translate indication.
-* After translating a fuzzy string (one that is marked with a ", fuzzy" comment), please remove its "fuzzy" tag -- otherwise this translation will be discarded by the build process, meaning that this string will show up untranslated. KBabel can do this automatically (see KBabel settings).
-* Before publishing your work (after you have finished updating the PO file), please update the "PO-Revision-Date" and "Last-Translator" fields in the PO file header. KBabel can do this automatically.
-== Review ==
+- can be used for local marketing (local Free Software/Linuw/Graphics oriented web sites, articles in fanzines, e-magazines and even magazines...)
-This is the start of a list of places to get translation reviews done.  So far:
-  http://www.linux.it/tp/
-== Locale Testing ==
-Before reporting that a locale doesn't work in Inkscape, you need to make sure that your system has that locale correctly set up.  To do this, you need to generally find a way to run "locale-gen".  (Under Debian/Ubuntu this is via "dpkg-reconfigure locales".)  If you set both the LANG and LANGUAGE variables and check a regular tool, you should see the correct language for both the libc error (first line) and the tool error (second line):
- LANG=es_MX LANGUAGE=es_MX ls -z
+See [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/WebSiteTranslation#Release_notes WebSiteTranslation]] page for detailed information on translating release notes.
- ls: opci&oacute;n inv&aacute;lida -- z
- Pruebe `ls --help' para m&aacute;s informaci&oacute;n.
-If it reports the regular C messages, your locale has not been correctly configured, and you'll need to find the right way to run "locale-gen" for your distribution:
+== User manual ==
+Some members of the Inkscape community are also focusing on an [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/UserManual user manual]]. This document can be read as a reference document for advanced users and as a good introduction to the functionalities of Inkscape by everyone.
- LANG=es_ES LANGUAGE=es_MX ls -z
+See [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/DocumentationTranslation#User_Manual DocumentTranslation]] page for detailed information on translating the user manual.
- ls: invalid option -- z
- Try `ls --help' for more information.
-== Programmers ==
+== Web pages, News and Wiki ==
-Please make sure you use [http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_mono/gettext.html#SEC150 dgettext] for any pluralized strings.
+English is generaly the exchange-tongue of developppers, and developper/user documentation is mainly written in English.
+Translation efforts should be first oriented on user documentation.
+You can take a look at the [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/WebSiteTranslation WebSiteTranslation]] page for detailed information about how to translate the web content of Inkscape
+See [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/WebSiteTranslation#Translation_of_web_site WebSiteTranslation]] page for detailed information on translating the web site, news and wiki.
+See the [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page main wiki page of Inkscape]] to get some examples (Spanish and German) of the translation of this wiki
+== Others ==
+Text files found in the inkscape directory
+...
+= Status =
+See this [[http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/TranslationStatus dedicated page]]

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