Hi folks,
after LGM with a lot of feedback, I would like to propose a structural
change on how we're currently write documentation.
I want to propose to use gettext for translations and use only one
reference language for our manual. My last inquiry on the mailing list
showed, that most of you were really annoyed by the mixed up languages
in the XML files. Back in 2003, it was a new attempt of writing
documentation, but it turned out to be hardly maintainable with
a big learning curve for new contributors.
Why gettext?
It is currently a widespread technique to provide translations for
documentation. The free software community provides a wide set of usable
tools for translators.
Of course, I'm fully aware of the possible drawbacks of this approach.
We need a migration strategy to migrate the current content and set a
reference language. I'd propose English, because every author who want
to introduce new content need to write it in English first and translate
it afterwards.
After this migration, we concentrate only on one manual (instead of 8 or
12 currently) and we will be able get new contributors (because of the
lower barrier and people who already provide translation for gnome-docs
can also provide translations to our manual). We have to roles involved
in the creation process: authors and translators. Every contributor can
decide on which side he want to be. Even both will work, like
currently...
I would very welcome to get a lot of feedback from you. The wiki would
probably the best place to write down a migration strategy (what will
happen with the screenshots for example?)
PS: See also my blog entry about my thoughts on this:
http://romanofskiat.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/lgm-aftermathnowlgm-aftermath/
Greetings,
--
Roman Joost
www: http://www.romanofski.de
email: romanofski@xxxxxxxx
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