[OSGeo-Discuss] Manage translation in OSGeo project

[Markus Neteler]

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 6:15 PM, Landon Blake <lblake at ksninc.com> wrote:
> Yves,
>
> "We have to think about hosting pages, but also all the translation process:
> who is doing what, when do we need what modify, who change what, etc."
>
> I believe there are really two (2) areas in which OSGeo projects can focus on translation:
>
> (1) Easing the translation of the GUI of FOSS GIS projects.
> (3) Writing program documentation in a way that makes translation as easy as possible.
> (2) Understanding how internationalization can impact non-GUI design decisions.

Here to (un)related drafts in the Wiki:

* OSGeo Multilanguage Dictionary (Education):
   http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeo_Multilanguage_Dictionary

* Software Translation Portal (Software stack):
   http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Software_Translation_Portal

> The first list item above is the most obvious. How many OSGeo projects currently support internationalization? I know that OpenJUMP does, and that this involves a serious investment in programmer time and energy. But I think the end result is worth the effort. I oftentimes wonder if internationalization is one of the reasons why JUMP foundered and OpenJUMP blossomed...

Also GRASS does it:
http://grass.osgeo.org/devel/i18n.php#statistics

And it's rather easy to set up with gettext() macros in C land (to not
pollute the
source code). Likewise there will be solutions for other programming languages.
Yet is is hard to easily translate *small* chunks (think rainy day). Hence the
second proposal above.

Best
Markus