Re: [PHP-DOC] translations not in sync. From: Manuel Lemos (mlemos <email protected>)
Date: 08/08/00

Hello ,

On 07-Aug-00 18:37:33, you wrote:

>To someone who knows how the translations to other languages are done:

>There are some modules for PHP that change a lot, and their documentation
>changes a lot as well, but only the English version. It appears that some
>documentation just got copied&pasted into some (but not all) other
>translations as it is, without actually being translated.

>That sounds confusing. Let me give you an example. I kept writing and
>updating documentation (English) for pspell module that I have just recently
>written. It also got properly translated into Japanese (or so it appears,
>for I do not know the language). But the German, Italian and French version
>has exactly the same contents as the English version did some time ago,
>which is incorrect and outdated.

You are completely right to bring that to attention people doing
translations. The way it is now it is not very organized and there is no
way to determine if a translation is synchronized.

>I do not have a problem with that. However, if someone get to translate this
>in the future,
>- Will they know to check wih the English version first, or will they just
>translate an already outdated version?

I don't think they will check the English version because the way it is is
a painful job.

>- How are they supposed to know which translation is the most current? Do
>they just check the last-modified date on CVS for all translations and
>assume that the last with the most changes is the most current, or is there
>a better way to know which is the "master" version, and which are the
>"translations"?

The way it is there is no way to figure what is most up to date because the
CVS server only stores commit dates and updates may have been lost since the
translator have copied the english files until the first translation was
commited.

>I just asked those questions because it seems important, and I haven't seen
>it brought up before. Sorry if I missed something obvious. I have a more
>practical question as well though:

>Since the German, Italian and French translations of pspell module are just
>outdated versions of the English version of the document, should I bring
>them in sync (on CVS) with the English copy, even though I am not
>translating them, or should I leave it and hope that whoever does the
>translation will check with English version first?

Hang on. This needs further though, but I think that the right way to go
is to have separate branches for each language instead of separate
directories. This way people will always know which version of the
original english files the translated files are in sync with.

Not that people will literaly merge changes in the main (english) branch
into their translation branch, but when they synchronize their versions
they will commit as if there was a merge and the version of the master
version will be noted and people will not loose updates in the main version.

So, I think it is time to halt translations, create different branches for
each language and re-commit what has been translated verifiying if the
translation is still up to date. This is not a easy task, but better now
than latter when there will be much even more documents to keep in sync.

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

Web Programming Components using PHP Classes.
Look at: email protected>?subject=Re:%20[PHP-DOC]%20translations%20not%20in%20sync.&replyto=3534.255T1892T8915329mlemos <email protected>">mlemos <email protected>">http://phpclasses.UpperDesign.com/?user=mlemos <email protected> 

--
E-mail: mlemos <email protected>
URL: http://www.mlemos.e-na.net/
PGP key: http://www.mlemos.e-na.net/ManuelLemos.pgp
--