RE: Translation Memory (TM) and text-transform

> RI> Francois wrote:
> RI> I have been looking around for more info on the CSS
> RI> 'text-transform', its purpose and  usage. I have the 
> feeling that it
> RI> might make the processing of text more complex since it actually
> RI> transforms characters.
> 
> It doesn't transform characters, and is thus designed to make

It does transform the glyph. 

> text processing in general (including use of TM) *more* efficient.

I do not think so. Visual aspect is important information as input for a
translator. And could be classified under the infamous "contextual
information" that is so important to translators. 

I agree on the principle that TM should be cleared of any style, layout and
essentially concentrate on pure linguistic content. But it fails in
practice. First simply because of lack of support of these rendering
mechanisms in most of translation/localisation tools. And secondly, because
the actual style does impact the translation. You do not translate "Products
And Services catalog" the same way you translate "Products and services
catalog" or "products and services catalog". It is in my mind the same for
tags such as bold or emphasis. You do not want to eliminate them from the
translation process, but keep them in a smart way so that they can be
restored to the translators without messing the content analysis.

> 
> Consider a page style where the major title is capitalised,
> first level subheadings have initial caps, and body text is 
> lower case except for required capitalisation.
> 
> The straightforward, but wrong, way to do this is to change the
> characters:
> 
> <major-title>THE EFFECT OF CHARACTER MANIPULATION ON
> TRANSLATION MEMORY</major-title> <subhead>The Effect of 
> Character Manipulation on Translation Memory</subhead> 
> <para>Manipulation of characters can have a negative impact 
> on the efficiency of Translation Memory, in the same way that 
> multiple URIs for the same resource have a negative effect on 
> Web proxy cache efficiency ...</para>
> 
> Additional variations are possible if some sections (eg, the
> first two lines of the first paragraph after a subhead) are 
> in small caps, depending on whether your smallcaps font puts 
> those glyphs on upper case, lower case, or - as is usual - 
> both cases (in which case the FolLoWing tEXt wOUld disPLaY just fine)
> 
> 
> The correct way to do this is to separate the stylability (and
> restylability) of the text from the content of the text.
> 
> <major-title>The effect of character manipulation on
> Translation Memory</major-title> <subhead>The effect of 
> character manipulation on Translation Memory</subhead> 
> <para>Manipulation of characters can have a negative impact 
> on the efficiency of Translation Memory, in the same way that 
> multiple URIs for the same resource have a negative effect on 
> Web proxy cache efficiency ...</para>
> 
> This will, with two lines of CSS, display identically to the
> first example. However, by using a consistent capitalisation 
> throughout the text, the efficiency of Translation Memory is 
> improved.

Again, not true when different sytles impact the translation and require
differences in the translated content.

> Restylability (once the designers decide in two 
> years time that capitalized headings are *so* 2003) is also 
> enhanced, as the new style requires a one line change in 
> site.css rather than multiple line changes in all of the content.

This case would be better described as subsitution of a style for another.

/François

Received on Thursday, 23 October 2003 04:15:49 UTC