[Freecats-Dev] translating documents (.xml/.sgml) in GNOME (cont.)

[Henri Chorand]

Hi Simos,
> I am forwarding this e-mail. It's an answer to an e-mail I sent
> about quick and dirty xml/sgml <=> po conversion in order to
> kickstart the Greek translations.

Thanks for the feed-back.

> I must note that there is a strong emphasis for interoperability
> with gettext. This could be different from the CATS aims for
> a complete aided translation package.


Sure. Let me know if you agree with the following:

- They are good developers and say they lack feedback from translators. 
For us, the reverse is true. We can provide this feedback, or more 
exactly, and better, from the localization industry and professional 
translators. So I see a really good complementarity if we can reach a 
common ground.

- They are more used to a console-mode approach but who can blame this 
considering the total lack of another approach at their present level; 
more than that, these efforts (from Gnome & KDE tools) seem becoming 
more mature quickly.

- We should try a best-of-both-worlds approach. Free CATS, if it 
succeeds, will be able to take all needs into account, whether from 
non-coders (professional translators) or from free software translation 
teams, because it offers a modular approach and a professional-grade 
translation memory server.

We know Free CATS will be able to perfectly answer their needs, because 
basically, we'll add input/output conversion filters for all their types 
of resource files (po, xml, sgml). We still have to determine if our
bilingual working format will be XLIFF or a similar & simpler one, so
I'm afraid we can't start coding these parsing filters right now, but
our bilingual working format is Free CATS's next planned step and it 
should not take too long.

This should remain true even if they want to use different kinds of 
client software - every free CAT tool will need these filters.

Also, HTTP-based TM server access is a major step and I believe it
will be highly valuable for all free software translation projects.
The editors of proprietary CAT software perfectly understood this -
De'ja`Vu is presently launching one.


If you think I'm right, then I could forward this short message and our 
draft documents to Malcom (as well as my other update about Free CATS 
development tools).


Regards,

Henri