[ESD-translators] Fwd: Re: Persian Translation

[Thérèse Godefroy]

Hi Tomas, hi everyone,

Le 15/10/2016 13:24, Tomas Stary a écrit :
[...]
> I am not sure what the translist file is. Could you please clarify it?

The translist file contains the language list:

<li><a href="/en">English - v4.0</a></li>
...
<li><a href="/tr">Türkçe - v4.0</a></li>

I call it that way because this sort of file is called *.translist on
gnu.org. Just a bad habit because it also contains the English version.

This list shouldn't be translated. It shouldn't be in the POT file
because it changes independently of the original. It can be included in
the page after the po4a-translate step, then customized with the current
class.


> You probably already know about the Makefiles in the translation
> directory. They provide a recipes for generation of the POT files, and
> also allow their update, when the original changes.

Inclusion and customization of the translation list can be in a makefile
recipe that would be common to all languages. You can set it up so that
any change to the translist triggers update of all HTML files, whether
or not they were generated by PO4A. I just don't know how to do that.


> I believe that the Makefiles can make a real difference in the
> translation process. The slight disadvantage is that they are not
> completely user-friendly for someone who does not have any experience
> with GNU make. I have tried to write the documentation inside the files.
> I will be glad to explain any parts which are not as obvious as they
> should be.

Your explanations are clear, but for someone whose only experience of
the command line is running Bash scripts, running Make is not at all
obvious. What I found most enlightening is this paragraph in the GNU
Make manual[0]:

“Once a suitable makefile exists, each time you change some source
files, this simple shell command:
        make
suffices to perform all necessary recompilations. The make program uses
the makefile data base and the last-modification times of the files to
decide which of the files need to be updated. For each of those files,
it issues the recipes recorded in the data base.”

Sometimes, the last-modification-time thing is annoying. For instance,
if you want to rebuild pages with a modified version of PO4A, Make will
say: "make: All targets are up to date". The same thing may happen after
switching Git branches, because this modifies timestamps. Of course, the
-B option [1] forces Make to run the recipes, but I had
to spend time looking for it.

Something else I don't like is that you need to open a terminal to run
Make, and then cd to the directory that contains the makefile. Most of
my homemade tools can be run from the file browser (Nautilus) by simply
clicking them. Some even have their own launchers in the Gnome panel. I
would probably make a launcher for "make -f Makefile.gen" if I had to
use it routinely. So, basically I think simple scripts are more
appropriate than Make for my own use use, but of course Make is better
if the same thing is done on the server.

I just fixed the language lists and a few bugs in the early v4
translations. Now we really need someone to update the website.


Best,
Thérèse


[0] https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#How-Make-Works
[1] https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Options-Summary