translating drafts.. Re: Brazilian portuguese ...

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 09:03:23 +0200, Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org> wrote:

> ... The translation home page
> clearly states that we would prefer the translation of stable documents.
> Tutorials and stuff are fine; for documents in the recommendation track
> translating an intermediate version like a candidate recommendation is
> problematic. Lots can change between that stage and a final  
> recommendation... So
> we try to avoid putting translations of earlier versions on the  
> translation index.

There are a couple of reasons why I think it would be god to have  
translations of drafts. I am aware that there is a risk that people won't  
have a translation of a draft, but then no such consideration seems tyo  
arise in connection with the idea of publishing drafts in english.

Having drafts in translation is helpfful for peopole who would like to  
participate in the development of a specification, who may have something  
very important to contribute but are not able to contribute it in english  
(which is after all the native language of only a few countreis).

Similarly, it seems that W3C is looking for implementations in order to  
test specs. If those implementations are tested in a variety of languages,  
this can only be a good thing. There are some things that don't really  
cause problems in english, but do in other languages - whether in specific  
ones or in translating in general. Sometimes thesee things will eb picked  
up by the i18n groups, but istrikes me as useful to actually encourage  
testing for real, not just mentally imagining it.

The development of testing groups, of work-in-progress software being  
managed by and offered to communities who don't happen to speak english  
strikes me as very positive - something that makes the "World Wide" in W3C  
a little less of a grandiose claim and a little more meaningful.

At the same time, it is important to update translations just as drafts  
are updated, and not leave the speakers of some language working with only  
a draft while the world has moved on from there...

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile                              chaals@opera.com
          hablo español - je parle français - jeg lærer norsk
   Here's one we prepared earlier:   http://www.opera.com/download

Received on Saturday, 6 August 2005 22:59:14 UTC