<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>Hi Alex,</span></div><div><span>The emphasis is on "</span>making the semi-english-literate (speak but not read) to actually use FOSS4G tools" such that it can be used for village administration.</div><div>In India there may not be many users if we actually Transliterate (English to English but Indic script) OSGeo Live DVD etc.</div><div>Ravi</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; "><div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; "><font size="2" face="Arial"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Alex Mandel <tech_dev@wildintellect.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> discuss@lists.osgeo.org<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, November 8,
2011 11:04 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Translation to Indian languages Feed back please<br></font><br>
On 11/07/2011 06:19 PM, Ravi Kumar wrote:<br>> Indian scene:<br>> European: English to Spanish etc are meant for using GIS itself by the learned user. <br>> Indictranslation: Most Indians who use GIS use it in English. The Indic translation is for making<br>> the semi-english-literate to actually use FOSS4G tools for villages, for local administration etc.<br>> So the english word is just changed to indian language, such that user can read english in his own script.<br>> <br>> FOSS4G tools are all front-end translatable, with ease or with a pinch of salt.<br>> All those who have tried/succeeded in Indic translation may pl give their experience.<br>> <br>> To Grade software-usability easy translation is one of the parameters.<br>> <br>>
Translating properties files. <br>> Online: this needs a good internet connection (and also a feeling that you may mess it up)<br>> Offline: You do it at leisure, using openoffice/googletransliterate etc<br>> <br>> Translation with coding: <br>> I wonder, how many FOSS4G tools still have stayed here..??<br>> Where after translation the code needs re-compilation, or work that a programmer only can do.<br>> <br>> Ravi Kumar<br>> <br><br>Many of the projects I'm familiar with have translation files. Basically<br>a text file with the english term, and you fill in the native language<br>term in the pair separated by some marker. This file is then sent to the<br>developers who put it into the code base so it will be included in the<br>next build. I'm not aware of any tools that allow translation files to<br>be dropped in on the fly, though I could see it being possible on Python<br>based applications that are not compiled before
shipping.<br><br>In some cases there are some fancier tools that make this process even<br>simpler. Take a look at Qt linguist, it's what QGIS uses to edit<br>translation files. They also have a person in charge of accepting<br>translations who reviews all the files that come in an applies them to<br>the main code.<br><br>Usually the biggest hold up I've seen is finding enough volunteers to<br>actually complete language translations. We don't have any translations<br>of Indic languages for OSGeo-Live nor have we received any interest.<br><br>Thanks,<br>Alex<br>_______________________________________________<br>Discuss mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:Discuss@lists.osgeo.org" href="mailto:Discuss@lists.osgeo.org">Discuss@lists.osgeo.org</a><br>http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss<br><br><br></div></div></div></body></html>