RFC: roadmap detour -- Textpack translations

gaekwad · 2015-11-11 11:51:20

On the 4.6 roadmap, there’s this item:

91% language translation in Textpacks

With the somewhat fluid nature of the roadmap and all the new/improved things going into 4.6, 91% translation of language strings was always going to be a bit of a stretch with the work involved.

New and improved features often need new language strings, and so the total number of strings to translate increases. Every new string typically adds 44 to the total number of strings to translate.

The current total is 53416 strings. Back in July 2016 the total was 51612 strings. Right now, the translation level is ~88%. At its height, it was almost 91%. Tantalisingly close to hitting the target, but that slipped. The translation workflow needs some improvements to reduce the barrier to entry, and I’ll open a new thread in Internationalisation later on today.

Realistically, 91% overall translation is not going to happen for the release of 4.6.0, and it should be interpreted as an optional or nice-to-have list item rather than a requirement. It should not delay release, either of the beta(s) or production.

I say ‘realistically’ from my English-speaking ivory tower, of course. I’m working on the principle that if translations for a given language are important enough, they’ll happen, and it’s important to ensure they can happen with minimal fuss.

The RFC is about how reasonable it is to remove the roadmap list item for 91% overall translation. Translations are happening, but they are not a requirement for 4.6.0 to be released. Your comments are welcomed, and it would help if you could tack on a numerical marker to the start of your comment reply so I can gauge reasonableness:

+1 for agree
0 for ambivalent
-1 for disagree

Go.

philwareham · 2015-11-11 12:00:53

+1

There are likely to be a few more strings added before 4.6 beta, so you will always be chasing a moving target. Don’t let that be a barrier. Thanks for all the work to date, very impressive!

gaekwad · 2015-11-11 12:03:01

Cheers, Phil. Glad you stopped by with your +1. Let me know how those Swahili lessons are going when you have a moment.

Bloke · 2015-11-11 20:13:31

+1

What Phil says. I’m doing my fair share of adding new features that require additional strings and making a hash of communicating them. I’ve pledged to do it better from now on.

phiw13 · 2015-11-12 02:35:03

Don’t fetish on that number. You’re doing a fine job :-)

I know from experience how hard it is to keep translations up-to-date and ready for release date. With the Camino project we had to drop a few translations sometimes because they were not ready in time. At least with Textpattern the translations are not tied to the release date, they (still) can be added / updated after the fact.

ruud · 2015-11-12 09:49:02

-1

Try harder ;)

gaekwad · 2015-11-12 17:24:13

phiw13 wrote #296554:

At least with Textpattern the translations are not tied to the release date, they (still) can be added / updated after the fact.

Exactly this. It’s easy for me to get a bunker mentality as the days get shorter, especially with remote work like this, plus it’s important for the comms channels to stay as open as is viable. There’s a roadmap, so this should be considered a traffic announcement, I guess.

gaekwad · 2015-11-12 17:36:24

ruud wrote #296559:

Try harder ;)

I start Konkani lessons in early 2016, then in spring I attend the inaugural How To Deal With Sassy Forum Replies. So, yeah, I’m keeping busy.

While you’re here, Ruud, there are a few new Dutch strings:

password_change_confirmation =>
password_confirm_button =>
password_strength_0 =>
password_strength_1 =>
password_strength_2 =>
password_strength_3 =>
password_strength_4 =>
show_password =>
salutation =>
image_details =>
all_preferences =>
setup_password_strength_0 =>
setup_password_strength_1 =>
setup_password_strength_2 =>
setup_password_strength_3 =>
setup_password_strength_4 =>
setup_show_password =>

If you could find a little time away from being REALLY UNKIND TO ME ACTUALLY and give these a look, I would absolutely forgive you. Thank you, you scamp.

kees-b · 2015-11-12 19:44:25

gaekwad wrote #296564:

If you could find a little time away from being REALLY UNKIND TO ME ACTUALLY and give these a look, I would absolutely forgive you. Thank you, you scamp.

too late, done already…

gaekwad · 2015-11-12 20:02:49

kees-b wrote #296565:

too late, done already…

You’re right, my mistake – I didn’t sync my repo. Ruud is right, I should try harder.

(Thanks for the word help, Kees)

ruud · 2015-11-13 10:01:02

If you’d use a weighed average of the translation percentages (giving more weight to languages that are used by more people), you’d probably end up with a score close to 99%, so it’s not as “bad” as it seems.

PS. I’d looked at the missing strings, but wasn’t sure on how to translate them correctly.

uli · 2015-11-13 15:43:06

I’ve translated the new set of language strings to German (will post soon in the other topic), except for the following two:

image_details => Image details
all_preferences => All preferences

In which context will they be shown? Is 1 info of the currently displayed image or will it replace “Show more detail” on the image list? Are 1 + 2 buttons/links (what do they trigger, where do they lead), labels (some more space available), or applied as parts of a sentence? etc.

Ah yes, another one: The password strengthes, do they need to be as short as the English ones (e.g. because they sit in one row on a scale-ike UI element) or a little longer (like e.g. in a dropdown menu)?

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#1 2015-11-11 11:51:20