l10n_workshop_by_Francesca_Ciceri_+_Laura_Arjona English (En) subtitles

My name is Laura Arjona and

my name is Francesca Ciceri

And this is the localization workshop

Localization or translation. We say
localization because its the process

that envolve a bit more than
translation. Maybe you also need

to change date formats or the
text orientation, or to have a

software in your own language. Ok?

For this to be done the software
needs to be prepared and this process

of preparing the software is internalization.
Is a software engineering process

to make a program ready for translation.
So people not beeing programers can

translate the software.

And debian is very well internationalized
so we have lots of things we can translate

without even touching a line of code.

The debian installer, the debconf
templates that Miriam talked a bit ago,

the descriptions of the packages, when
you search for package website or the

software center or in synaptics or
anything, the manuals documentation

of debian I mean, and of course the
information that the Debian Project

produces, the website, the press releases,
the debian project news, wiki, everything

So for many people the most important
thing is the debian installer.

That you can install debian, many people
dont know english or they dont want to use

english, so its nice that debian installer
is in their own language and thanks for

Christian Perrier and all the people in
the different language teams,

we have the installer in many languages
and we are still improving that, ok ?

No? Yeah! this is your turn ...

Thank you, ok! Then there are debconf
template, Miriam told about debconf

messages in the previous talk, and they
are messages sent by the system when you

are installing a new package and they just
need ask on a prompt to the user

about configuring the package and so.

And there are translatable files, po files
and you can use different tools to

translate them, as the translation is done
is submitted directly to the bug tracking

system - the BTS to the relevant package.
And there are stats ...

We will do it ...

My laptop is dying ...
You have to support it ...

Wait a minute we have a backup laptop...

I'm back ...

And here are the stats for the translation
of debconf messages from the different

teams, you can see that Spanish is at 95 %
so you're not doing perfectly, but

you're doing well, better than Italian at
least, and Catalan is 45% , you need to

work more , really really. Ok

You can also translate or help translating
the descriptions of the packages. And this

is an interface very, very easy, you just
have the description in english and

here's a text box where you put the same
description in your language, and press a

button, submit and that's all. Later
another person can review it, and improve

it, but its very easy, you don't have to
do anything, just go to one webpage, read

and translate to your language.

There's other documents that we use to
translate...

The release notes and the installation
guide which we translate them obviously

with each new release,and there are other
manuals that are not as much updated, so

the as the translation is done there's not
much to do.

And this kind of documentation is managed
by the debian documentation project that

has a specific workflow and a specific
repository, all this kind of translations:

the debconf messages, the website, the
documentation have their own workflow.

They are managed sometimes by different
teams besides the local language team.

And finally the website, I said before
that the installer was very important but

the debian website is very important too,
because people need to go there to

download debian and if they cannot
understand the website probably they

will manage to download the iso file and
install it. Also the website is something

that's all the time producing new content
and updating content, so there is always

work to be done in the website translation
team. And is also quite easy, just like

someone said before, just read and send
emails, this is the same.

The most important thing is to understand
the philosophy, its a team work, your

work needs to be reviewed by other people
and you need to review the translations

that other people do, if you do like that
everything goes very well.

And we have also a robot (a bot) that
understand emails the similar way

sent to the bug tracking system for the
translations we just sent that read the

subject with the file that you want to
translate and what you going to do with

that. The robot understands that and
generate the pages with the statistics

and the situation of each file so
everybody knows in each situation is the

translation. As you understand as it works
its very easy to continue work that was

done by other people. From the beginning
can be very strange but it works very well

And there is obviously different tools for
the different kind of translation you're

going to do. For the debconf messages you
can use some specific po editors, but I

actually use a text editor, which is really
good as well i mean basically its a text

file, so you can edit it with any text
editor. For the website we have again a

text editor, but you need to have at least
a personal checkout of a repository of

this site to build a page and check that
everything is ok (and I told also your part)

About consistency in translation, well it
used to be at least at the Italian team

we try to be consistent having a glossary
and keeping track of what is the

translation specific for. But its really
dependent of the team. I have no idea

about the Spanish and the Catalan teams.

Normally each team has some rules or you
can ask for example with Spanish we have

informal you and formal you, so when you
need to translate you have to know that in

debian we treat the you instead

This kind of rules are normally discussed
in the mailing lists and sometimes a file

is written with all the rules or the most
important and its uploaded to the website

somewhere. So if you have that you can do
things, ask the mailing list or just read

and try to follow the same style that you

are already reading in your own language
If you come from another project maybe the

other project has another kind of rules, so
If you are translating for debian ask first

for those rules, if you don't agree with
the rules you can discuss about the rules

too in the mailing list and well good luck...

Probably you would think that all this
translation is very complicated

we are talking about debconf, po, mailing
with some strange subjetcs

in fact everything has the same philosophy
you just ask:" I want to translate this and

then you send your translation as proposal,
other people comment about the translation

Then you send the final or the one you
think its the final one and when everybody

agrees to the translation somebody uploads
it to the website or BTS or to anyplace

Its the same philosophy ask for reservation
I want to translate this, you translate

at home. Then you send your proposal,
comments after that you send a last chance

for comments, your final version and after
that you or a person with permission uploads

the file to the correct repository and we
keep the difficult bureaucracy as debian

is a very big project if you don't follow
some protocols at the end people work

double so it's better to follow the
protocols and everything goes very well

And you have to keep in mind we are a team
maybe other people have to finish your work

because you start and later you don't
finish so if you follow the protocols other

people can finish your work and you can
finish the work of other people pretty well

That's what I say... but anyway you don't
need to know everything you don't need to

do everything, debian is very big, you just
have to focus in something and try to do that

Choose the part where you feel comfortable
even in translation there are many different

kind of things, people from the old school
like people knowing po files, gettext and

translate the documentation of debconf
templates, the new people, people coming

from the web world can use the DDTS
the package descriptions because they just

have to go to the website and fill in a form
or translate the wiki pages, its just an

edit in the page, creating a new page in
your language and put the same content in

your language, its very easy, or the website
its also edited in a text file its very easy

And this is my favorite, the super lazy mode
you just read what others people do and give

your opinion, so you know your language so
even you don't need to know english

You just read what other people translate
and you say here's a typo, its not

understandable, this grammar is wrong and
that's all that kind of work its needed too