[Localization] The Bright Future of Sugar / OLPC Localization Efforts

[Chris Leonard]

You are all probably aware that there have been ongoing changes in the
structuring of the development process of the Sugar software that you have
all done so much to make available to children in their native tongues.  The
majority of the software development process (and therefore the source of
strings to be localized) has been migrating to repository (repo)
infrastructure hosted by Sugar Labs.  To date, this has resulted in very
little change in how the localization community does it's work because the
current stable 8.2 release and many activities have remained hosted on the
OLPC repo.  Sayamindu has continued to do his usual magic in taking care of
the administrative tasks and integration of the L10n process with the build
systems (at either Sugar Labs or OLPC).
As the Sugar Labs infrastructure has stabilized and with OLPC's unfortunate
loss of staff to support software development and a reduction in their
server admin staff, there have been discussions among those parties at Sugar
Labs and OLPC that have been taking care of the various tools and servers as
to how best to continue providing an environment in which the localization
of the Sugar UI (and activity) strings can continue to grow and be
maintained on behalf of the Sugar / OLPC L10n community which has done such
amazing work and for the benefit of the children that use the XO laptop (or
indeed, Sugar in other forms such as packages from various linux distros or
Sugar-on-a-Stick).

The Sugar Labs Infrastructure Team (Bernie Innocente, et al.) are looking
into hosting solutions, OLPC is reviewing it's current collection of servers
and there has been some preliminary discussion about the possibility of
transferring a server to Sugar Labs to host Pootle.   Basically everyone on
all sides (Sugar Labs Infrastructure team, OLPC Volunteer Infrastructure
Group (VIG), OLPC management and server admin staff) are committed to
identifying the best long-term solution and to providing a smooth
transition.  It seems very likely that a migration will be accompanied by an
upgrade in Pootle version to either 1.2 or 1.3 (if it is released and stable
in the right time frame) from the currently installed 1.1 instance.

In the mean time, Sayamindu has already been fiddling all of the bits that
need to be adjusted on the back end to make the migration go smoothly in
terms of plugging into the repos at either OLPC or Sugar Labs.  OLPC's
sysadmin, Stephan Unterhauser, has created a virtual-machine sandbox where
testing of new Pootle versions and pre-staging of modifications in scripts,
etc. can be performed without disrupting the production Pootle instance. The
general idea would be to establish a new server at Sugar Labs (as soon as
the necessary resources like hardware and hosting can be arranged) and that
the new server would be running a newer version of Pootle.  The new (Sugar
Labs) and old (OLPC) servers would run in parallel for a time while
stability and usability of the new system is tested (L10n community help
will certainly be needed for that part).  In general, it is important that
the L10n community step forward and contribute not only translated UI
strings, but also some effort on the administration and management of the
tools.  It is in that spirit that I am writing to the list to contribute  to
community organization and communications so that Sayamindu's valuable time
can be focused on those tasks that require his remarkable technical skills
or in depth understanding.

For now, localization work should continue on the OLPC Pootle system until
such time as a formal cut-over is declared and announced to this list.  As
this process moves forward, there will be further communication (in advance)
to this list about progress and next steps.  The ongoing discussion of the
options and details will continue in forums like the Sugar Labs and OLPC
sysadmin lists (serving the OLPC VIG and Sugar Labs Infrastructure team,
respectively) and on various IRC channels as things develop.  General
questions or concerns from the L10n community should probably be
voiced/discussed on the L10n list and I will endeavor to address them or I
will communicate them to those who can.  Sysadmin-skilled localizers are
certainly welcome to join in discussing the technical details in those other
forums, but the goal is that for most of the L10n community, this will be
accomplished with as seamlessly as possible with a minimum of disruption and
a maximum of transparency as further details/plans develop.

cjl

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Cjl


<http://bugs.locamotion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=652>
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