Re: [Freecats-Dev] Interface/vote

[Kirk McElhearn]

On 2/19/03 10:38, "Dave Simons" <address@hidden> wrote:

>> So the idea is, would it not be quicker to begin by implementing
>> translation client features from within Open Office, in a way similar to
>> what Trados and Wordfast do from within MS Word?
> 
> Well, you asked for a vote and I haven't seen any being cast yet so here's
> what I say.
> I'm wearing my pure professional translator's hat here and I'm thinking in
> personal rather than project terms. Remember, translators want to see some
> benefit for themselves and consistency is probably not the main issue for
> them.

In what way is consistency not the main issue? What do you mean by
consistency here?
> 
> 1) However hard a pill it is to swallow, 75% of all translation work is
> going to be done on wintel for a long time to come, and more specifically,
> on MS word. An MS Office interface should be among the first priorities. If
> Y.C's interface (which works on all MS office documents not just Word) gets
> that problem out of the way then let's go for it if he's willing.
> Proprietary and open source can go hand in hand and I don't mind paying a
> justifiable price.

Don't forget us Mac users.  :-)
> 
> 2) Re:1. If we're going to wean customers off MS Office (* see below), and
> I really don't see any realistic alternative to OOo/Star Office at present,
> then we'd better not let Trados get to critical mass otherwise the job will
> be ten times as hard since I can't see them making an OOo version. Trados
> is defacto at the moment but not irreversibly so. Once we have our MS
> interface we need that OOo interface quickly too so we can go one up on
> Trados. Might this create a conflict of interests for Yves and Wordfast? or
> might Yves look the possibility of porting WF to OOo too?
> 
> Once these two interfaces are out of the way, then yes, a stand-alone
> interface would be great (read "indispensable"), especially for html/xml
> and perhaps other stuff too. It's interesting to note that Abiword uses an
> XML-like file format so that should be easy to cater for with our XML-aware
> interface.

By stand-alone you mean like Deja Vu, which presents texts in a simple table
form?

I far prefer the Trados approach, where you can at least see the type of
formatting in the text. It helps by giving some context as to what level of
text you are translating, at least in docs with several levels of headings.



Kirk

                                vice versa
  Translations - French to English, English to French | Technical Writing
       Traductions francais-anglais, anglais-francais | Redaction technique
  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . .  address@hidden | http://www.mcelhearn.com  . . . . . .
  . .  Kirk McElhearn | Chemin de la Lauze | 05600 Guillestre | France  . .