[Localization] [translate-pootle] Requirements for delivery of OLPC translations (Pootle)

[Chris Leonard]

Urso,

Just want to clarify some things about "string freeze" and it's meaning in
terms of localization work.

First and most important is that "string freeze" is a restriction on
developers and not translators.  String freeze means developers need to stop
changing UI strings so that translators can do their final work prior to
release, in other words, string freeze is a start signal for translators to
perform their final reviews and commits of PO files, not a stop signal, even
the release date itself is not a stop signal for localization.

Second is that even after a release is made and declared final and stable,
localizers can complete their work and a deployment team can make a
customization stick for a deployment that includes the post-release
localization work, so you will not "miss the boat" for providing a localized
UI environment for your deployment if work on lang-pap is not complete by
the next release date.  This is part of the beauty of separating the code
(release) from the strings (PO/MO files).

Of particular note, since you are looking at using Sugar on XO laptops
(either 1.0 or 1.5), you are most likely looking at deploying the 0.84
version as the details of deploying the very latest version of Sugar on the
XO have not yet been fully worked out (at least to a level that is stable
enough for a live deployment), although I understand that there is ongoing
work on that.  Version 0.84 Fructose / Glucose strings will not be changing
and the string freeze for those was a long time ago, so in some real sense,
the upcoming string freeze is meaningless to your near term plans.

I'll add some detail interlaced with your questions below.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 4:08 PM, Urso Wieske <uwieske at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> We are reaching our deadline February 28th for the first translations of
> Papiamento (PAP).
> I know that "String Freeze"  is due March 1st.
>
> I have the following questions:
> - what are delivery requirements?
>

There are no delivery requirements on localizers related to string freeze.
It is a signal to language admins to start final review and commit of PO
files before release date, but even release date is not the last chance to
add new localization.


> - where can I find them?
>

You can't, they don't exist.  The requirement is on developers to stop
changing UI strings in their code.



> - whom should give notice that Papiamento is ready on March 1st?
>
- we still have some translations we need to do after the string freeze: how
> much time do we have to work on and still deliver (the second
> delivery) after March 1st?
>

Localization doesn't need to be ready March 1.  It would be nice, but is not
essential, if you had your work done by March 31st.

The full release schedule is here:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.88/Roadmap

There is no notification to be given, only language admin actions to be
taken 9PO file review and commit), the rest happens more-or-less
automagically.


> - What are the criteria to integrate a PO file in the software
> release/build?
>

A language administrator must perform the Commit to VCS  action through the
Pootle user interface, it is on the Translate tab of Pootle for those users
like admins that have the commit PO file privilege.  Pootle is directly
connected up to the git software repository (git) through some magic on the
back end performed by Sayamindu at the time the language was set up.  The
language admin's action in Pootle triggers a commit in the software repo (by
a special user called user:pootle, but traceable back to the language
admin).  The PO file for that language can be found in the /po directory of
the git project's source code tree and after the commit of the PO file, you
can see the evidence in the git commit log and in the date stamp of the PO
file in the source tree.


> - We have PO files which are completed BUT we have still occurrences of
> suggestions in it: IS THIS A PROBLEM with delivery or integration? (will it
> be accepted as such?)
> - We have some words that need attention, because of some reason: will it
> still be accepted?
>
>
Suggested strings will not show in the committed PO file and will not be
shown to users.  If a particular string has not been translated at all, the
English version of that string will show to users.  There are no functional
consequences of partially completed PO files, but as you can imagine, it is
not a pretty or desirable result to have mixed language UI strings.

Accepting or rejecting suggestions is done by language admins (or other
localizers that may be granted the review priv in a given language).  It is
generally part of the review process to clear up any pending suggestions.

There is some technical stuff that occurs in taking the PO files committed
by the language admin and converting it into an MO file during the build
process, but this is largely transparent to localizers.

The important steps for a language admin to take are to:

 1) Review PO files using the Review tab in Pootle, these are msgfmt
(message format) checks from the Translate Toolkit and while some things
that get flagged (e.g. whitespace) are not critical, while some other flags
(e.g. printf) could cause a PO file to fail during the build process.  If
there are errors being flagged on the Pootle Review tab that you do not
understand or cannot resolve, post to this list about them and hopefully we
can get you some help figuring it out.

2) After a review of a PO file, language admins must commit the PO file.
This is about as far as the localizers responsibility goes, after that,
things happen in the git repo and during the build process, but localizer
intervention is typically not needed.

I hope that clarifies things a bit.

cjl
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