Some of my best friends are localisers

Localizers are some of the most active contributors to FOSS. They often work tirelessly across multiple projects making sure your project reaches new audiences. By understanding some of the consequences of developer decisions as they impact localizers you can become a developer that makes the lives and contribution of localizers really easy.

Localizers in FOSS are often no different from localizers in the commercial world. They take what they are given. In the commercial world because they're paid money, in the FOSS world because the end goal, a localized product, is really important to localizers.

But they deal with some painful process, painful decisions and a lack of awareness of the impact that development work can have on the localizers.

The aim of this talk is to raise some of the issues in file formats, localisable strings, language choice and process that can make localization frustrating. Developers who attend should be able to walk away with a much better understanding of how what they do ripples into the lives of localizers. They should be better equipped to help improve the lives of their localizers and be better informed of the impact that their decisions will have on the localization team.

End result, happy localizers and happy developers, creating a great multilingual product.

https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/10_easy_steps_to_ruin_your_localization/

Transcript

1. Some of my best friends are localisers A developers guide Dwayne Bailey, Translate
2. A little about me ✔ Started Translate.org.za - non-profit focused on South African languages ✔ Translate - focused on assisting language communities across the globe
3. What we do and why • We assist localisation teams • We assist companies • We develop tools • Essentially our tooling is community needs expressed by localisers
4. Why this talk • We’ve bumped out head against developers • We’ve often had a different focus to upstream • We’ve hit the same problems access projects
5. Some history • Why can speak to this? • Localising South Africa • 11 languages - think differently • Saw PO as useful • Built converters not because PO was great, but because the tools where better • Pain * 11
6. This talks long term goals • Been threatening to do this for 11 years • Really to distil some of what we’ve know • See this as a workshop and we’ll make this better over time
7. The Social
8. Lower the barrier to participation • Technical skills mismatch • Web based localisation tools can help • Complex processes might help you but likely don’t add any benefit to the localisers • You need some process, but be careful that you aren’t designing out contributors • Nobody has complained • Try not to force localisers to be coders
9. Own team own goals • Yes, they’re part of your team and some only do your software • But many are spread across multiple projects • They’re doing their language • Bad tooling? - they’ll work around it. We did with oo2po, moz2po and Pootle • Bad process? - they’ll learn it, try fix, give up, just live with it
10. Best localisers are your localisers • They use your software • They care about what you do • Snake oil, or millions of localisers.
11. The Assumptions
12. Translators use tools • Introducing a new file format which matches your projects needs won’t necessarily match localisers needs. • Imagine being told that you can’t use vim, you need to use emacs, or visa versa • Its kind of what you’re doing. • Yip you can do a quick localisation. But you do lose things
13. Assumptions of language • The way your language works is not the way all languages work • Marketing - be most careful if you are from California • Idioms - it might be crucial to your software, don’t assume everyone reads scoff or understand your references to Faulty Towers • Tone/chatty/register - you can’t change it, but be aware of it
14. Technical
15. Use a standard format • Either an accepted standard PO, XLIFF or what is expected in your domain properties, .ts, etc • A new file format means people can’t use their tools
16. Variables • If only there was one variable style? We live with what upstream language gives us • We’d all want to avoid the situation as in OpenOffice.org with 11 different styles • What do variables contain? • %d vs %s but then you need to be a programmer • Comments can help • Only variable info - don’t put your program name in a variable • Allow reordering - some languages need to reorder your variables. • %s %s doesn’t help here • %1 %2 does • Careful named variables • %(file)s -> %(leer)s
17. Split sentences • I am a good sentence. • “I am a “, “bad”, “ sentence” • Why? “I am a sentence that is “, “good”.
18. Punctuation and capitalisation • Don’t assume that how your sentences work works the same in other languages • sentence[sp]? in French • Name: [ ] • Capital N and colon are a convention that might not work for some languages • Title Case is not common in most languages, don’t force it to be built in
19. Terminology • Rasterisation and Posterisation - does anyone know that that means • Your tool will have terminology • Office suite: format, justify, word processor • Audio: levels, balance, volume, track
20. Comments • The best people to add comments are localisers - see if you can help them be able to do that • Too many comments are a pain when they restate the obvious • Good comments enhance or explain what might be confusing • All comments need to be parsed by the localiser
21. Context is everything • Don’t take away context • Don’t sort a list of strings
22. Plurals • We have them, let’s use them • They don’t work like yours • CLDR plurals “zero” and “one” don’t mean 0 and 1
23. i18n
24. Localisation from the start • Adding it later means you’ve baked in badness • RTL from the start, mostly solved by frameworks • Don’t assume layout goes LTR and you’e almost there • Use UTF8, etc and you are almost there
25. Number and dates • While I’m comfortable with 1,000,000.00 I actually want 1 000 000,00 and so do many others. • 6/10 6 November, 10 June? - it just makes be feel foreign in your software
26. Names • Names don’t work like yours • Alaa and el Fattah - is my friends name, but how exactly does he squeeze that into your First name, Surname widgets? He hacks it, but you made him feel foreign • Brand names are translated in some languages.
27. Conclusion • Hopefully you’re not overwhelmed • Help me expand and clarify this list • Take away: • You have some information to help you be better when you are localising • Not make assumptions about language • Listen and ask your localisers • We want to localise your software!
28. Baie dankie Contact me: Dwayne Bailey <dwayne@translate.org.za>