[mobile-devel] French translation

[Matthew Talbert]

Hi All,

If I were a translator (I'm not), I would probably be like Dominique
and use Emacs (since that's my preferred editor). However, most people
will not be comfortable with such a setup, and in my experience it's
easier to explain to them how to use Launchpad than any other setup.
I've been told that if you're talking to someone face to face, then it
isn't hard to explain the use of other tools like Poedit, but it is
difficult to do electronically.

Since we added Xiphos to Launchpad, we have gained 3-5 additional
translations, and new interest in some additional ones. Most of our
long-term translators like Dominique use some other setup, but I think
Launchpad has been good for generating increased exposure.

One thing that some people don't like is that Launchpad requires use
of BSD license for anything translated there (though it isn't
retroactive to translation work that is already done, or ongoing
translation work outside of Launchpad). To me, this is a very good
thing, as it allows people to use your translations in other software
(Launchpad will suggest translations based on other software). But
some contributors won't like this; of course, they can always just do
their translations elsewhere, problem solved. What gets tricky is a
situation where you have someone who wants to do a translation, where
some work has been done in Launchpad, but who really has a strong
negative opinion of BSD licensing. We had this at Xiphos, and my
response was "If you're absolutely committed to maintaining this
translation, then we won't use what is done at LP; but if you can't
commit to doing all of it, then we'll have to allow others to work on
it since they're apparently willing to help".

Matthew