Re: Re: Translated PerlMonks FAQ

[demerphq]

What about a language user preference

Its unlikely a newbie will find the appropriate user settings without having read the faq first. :-)

Can nodelets be current-node-sensitive? If so a "translations" nodelet could indicate which other languages the current doc is available in

Interesting idea, but its a bit ambitious. It would require pmdev and godly intervention. And considering the amount of time the gods have for reviewing patches these days I doubt its a good plan.

at the top of the site FAQ, next to the author and date, it may say English Francais Deutsch etc.

So we would have a set of tranlation links at the top of the page to see a version of the FAQ page that is translated to that langauge? Ok, but this is my problem. currently we have about 8 translations from a set of about 50 documents and those 8 are in a signle langauge. So we would have alink to a page with only 8 translated links on it. If I were not a native english person and I clicked on the approparite links I would be pretty ticked to find less than 1/8th of the master document.

I guess what im trying to say is that if we had volunteers (with follow through) that would ensure the whole FAQ was translated then this approach would be fine. But as long as its a smattering of translations here and there it seems better to me to put links to individual translations as we otain them.

[Callum]

Its unlikely a newbie will find the appropriate user settings without having read the faq first. :-)

Definately true, but to qualify my original comment two things -- 1, the default will be correct for the majority of people who use the site, and acceptable to the majority of the rest; 2, non-native english speakers are going to look in one of two places to find info on language settings - the site FAQ and their user settings. It's not and ideal solution, but it's an idea.

So we would have alink to a page with only 8 translated links on it. If I were not a native english person and I clicked on the approparite links I would be pretty ticked to find less than 1/8th of the master document.

I think this is going to be a problem with most of the possible options, but it has the virtue of highlighting where there are gaps in the documentation, which may in turn attract volunteers to help with translations.

But as long as its a smattering of translations here and there it seems better to me to put links to individual translations as we otain them.

One final comment I'll make -- it's important to allow for the possibility of success; the library of documentation that is translated will grow over time, a dozen polyglotic documentation-junkies may join the site tomorrow; the option you go with ought to be one that works well with the ultimate goal of getting all the site docs translated into multiple languages.

[monsieur_champs]

I guess what im trying to say is that if we had volunteers (with follow through) that would ensure the whole FAQ was translated then this approach would be fine. But as long as its a smattering of translations here and there it seems better to me to put links to individual translations as we otain them.

That's my fault. I confess that I have less time than I would like to translate the Monastery Docs to my own language.

A bunch of volunteers working as a team is a nice idea. I'll work on this idea. Thank you very much.

For now, all my spare time is just a couple hours a week. That means we can't have a separated index for each translation language, until I have at least 75% of the FAQ translated.

[demerphq]

That's my fault.

On the contrary. Your contributions in this regard are more signifigant than about %99.9999 of the people here. Not only that, but its your efforts (and the implicit impact on SiteDocClan and pmdev (as there is overlap between the two)) that has even lead to these questions being raised. My point was not that you had not done enough, but more that we simply cant expect one person to do it all and as such are unlikely to get comprehensive translations.

That means we can't have a separated index for each translation language, until I have at least 75% of the FAQ translated.

Well, really determining if your latter point is true is the whole point of this discussion. While everybody is welcome and encouraged to provide their POV on this subject I personally think your own views carry much more weight than the unilingual folks. How do you feel about the idea of a Portugese FAQ that had english links where you had yet to tranlate a normal link? Would you prefer to have links to the translations associated to the english links or would you prefer the links on a seperate but not totally translated page?

Also, there are lots of multilingual folks that participate here. Personally I would think it would be a good thing if our sizable French and German population contributed some translations. :-)

[monsieur_champs]

(...) How do you feel about the idea of a Portugese FAQ that had english links where you had yet to tranlate a normal link?

IMHO, this is not really intuitive. But I'm possibly missing something.

Would you prefer to have links to the translations associated to the english links or would you prefer the links on a seperate but not totally translated page?

I prefer the links associated with the english links. This sounds user-friendly - remember, the entire site still in english, and this will not change. The links to translations will help non-native english speakers access documentations in a understandable language, and this is the most important thing. As closer the docs are from each other, as better the chances of a clueless user needing help will find them searching for anything related.