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Re: SK Core+Plugins Translation

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 4:33 pm
by cmb
Hi Holger, hi Tata,
Holger wrote:I think a description like:
Translations
Find and share translations of CMSimple(_XH) core and plugins here
Moderator: Tata
should be ok.
+ 1
Holger wrote:if useful, for some forum rules.
I'm not sure if special rules are necessary for now.

Christoph

Re: SK Core+Plugins Translation

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:53 pm
by Tata
Right now I have a discussion with Oldnema. The idea is that all language files (in my opinion all files - not only the language) should have a header with exactly written version of the plugin to which the translation is made. IMHO this might get into the general convention regarding core and plugin files.

Re: SK Core+Plugins Translation

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:22 pm
by cmb
Hi Tata,
Tata wrote:The idea is that all language files (in my opinion all files - not only the language) should have a header with exactly written version of the plugin to which the translation is made. IMHO this might get into the general convention regarding core and plugin files.
Basically a very good idea! But inserting the version manually is somewhat prone to errors. It's quite easy to forget one or two of the files, what might cause confusion. With SVN it's not possible without further scripts to insert some arbitrary information, but AFAIK it can be automated to insert the revision number (a single number), which should be enough to identify the file version. I guess I'll do that for my plugins in the future. And we should consider to do this for the core files too.

About the language files specifically: I could extend Translator_XH easily to add this information to the file. But it's not clear, if it should automatically use the CMSimple_XH version the plugin is running on, or if the information should be set in the config options, so that's it's possible to translate for example plugins for XH 1.6 from XH 1.5.3.

But a problem arises, when the language files are saved from the back-end, as all comments will be purged in this case. So this had to be changed in the CMSimple core resp. pluginloader.

Christoph

Re: SK Core+Plugins Translation

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:17 pm
by Tata
So maybe the translator might become a part od distribution? Or at least the strongly recommended translation tool. Then all requirements could be done automatically.
I mean: if plugin authors would respect the need to state the version number in the very first line under a variable, e.g. $plugin_version, then the translator could easily read it and include into the header-comment

Re: SK Core+Plugins Translation

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:54 pm
by cmb
Hi Tata,
Tata wrote:So maybe the translator might become a part od distribution?
IMO that's not the best idea. Each installed plugins causes at least a little overhead -- and Translator_XH is probably not of much use for typical end-users, even if they will adjust some language strings according to their personal preferences.

Of course I recommend using Translator_XH for any complete translations of plugins or the core.
Tata wrote:if plugin authors would respect the need to state the version number in the very first line under a variable, e.g. $plugin_version, then the translator could easily read it and include into the header-comment
Several (many?) plugins already have a version number stored as constant or available through a function. If we could find an agreement about the name, it would be used for other purposes too (an automated update availability check for example).

Another thing oldnema made me aware of: it would be very helpful for translators, if the developers will state somewhat about the stability of their original language files. E.g. to state, that no new languages will be introduced in the 1.5.x series as it's the case for CMSimple_XH.

Christoph

Re: SK Core+Plugins Translation

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:05 pm
by Tata
That's what we have discussed today with oldnema. And the "translators section" here in forum will be the right place to introduce eventually lang-packs-mods between new core versions will be introduced. especially with translation sometime there are problems and only while using the plugins the translator find better expressions than used in first translation. I also have received some comments from users asking me if the translation does mean this or this.

@Convention: There are set the QUALITY STANDARDS for CMSimple_XH. The same may be set for - in forum introduced - translations, plugins etc. If we make our common agreement what the file-header shall be, than files, plugins, templates etc. crossing these rules will be ignored.

Re: SK Core+Plugins Translation

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:22 pm
by cmb
Hi Tata,
Tata wrote:and only while using the plugins the translator find better expressions than used in first translation.
You're probably right. But a small help to get the translations right the first time might be available in form of the translation-hints. So if you and others have suggestions how they can be improved, please tell me. And if anybody finds them useful, I'm gladly willing to maintain the translations-hints package (at least for the core distribution and my plugins).
Tata wrote:There are set the QUALITY STANDARDS for CMSimple_XH. The same may be set for - in forum introduced - translations, plugins etc. If we make our common agreement what the file-header shall be, than files, plugins, templates etc. crossing these rules will be ignored.
That's very reasonable IMO.

Christoph