Build up a publicly accessible terminology database. So, please be patient and only send the occasional polite reminder when you need to. Also, developers always have more bugs to fix and features that they want to implement than their spare time allows. So, it is really important to keep it a friendly and fun environment for everybody (not saying that work places shouldn’t be fun and friendly too…). When requesting things that you need for your language, remember to always be polite - most free software developers are doing this as a hobby in their spare time. When I need to request support for plural forms, I usually play the “Russian needs it too” card, to preempt any potential “not worth doing the work for your tiny language” responses. I use a mix of both, but always make sure that I at least download everything and feed Virtaal regularly. Especially when you start working on multiple projects, having everything in your own translation memory will help you keep consistency and speed up translation, because you won’t have to type your translation for “OK” for the bazillionth time. Many projects are translated via online platforms that have an integrated translation memory, but you can also get free offline tools like Virtaal or Poedit. If you can find a second person to team up with on your localization effort, even better. Find somebody else to talk to about the difficult bits in your translations and about new terminology. Before you do this, make sure that the two English words really do mean the same thing. Some of this terminology baggage is due to the history of computing, and there is no need for you to take it on. “Log in” and “Sign in” are the exact same thing, so are “directories” and “folders” on your hard disk. Watch out for double terminology in the English source strings. Or if it’s too big but you really want it, ask the developers if it is fine to translate just the most important strings, like menu entries. You can also go for a piece of software that your language community requested, but make sure that it isn’t too big until you have a bit of experience under your belt. This way, you can spot mistakes more easily and correct them as you use it. Translate a piece of software that you would like to use yourself. Then move on to high-visibility projects like Firefox. It won’t be so scary this way, and you can take joy in the completed product faster. Pick a piece of software that doesn’t have too many strings in it. Also, software that can be run on multiple platforms is best (Linux, MacOS, Windows). Translating something you don’t like isn’t much fun. Check out if it has a workable translation system, then download the software and make sure that you like it. Then you can be sure that there will be another release in the future that can contain your language. When looking at a piece of free software, make sure that it has an active developer and user community. It is usually also a lot easier to get to test your translation. It is much easier to get your locale added, and you can contact the developers directly if you are having any issues. Here are her tips on how to start a localization initiative for a language of few speakers: GunChleoc is Chieftain (project manager) for the strategy game Widelands and a free software localization expert. Image courtesy iGà, © 2017 Battle for Wesnoth, licensed under the GPLv2+.Ī version of this post was originally published at r12n. Battle for Wesnoth (Scottish Gaelic localization).
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