Re: Request for additional localization material (translator's kit, error message explanations)

Bonjour Jean-Jacques, hi all.

On Dec 18, 2006, at 08:50 , J.J.SOLARI wrote:
> Congratulations for bringing up the CSS Validator localization project
> in time for W3C tenth anniversary!

Thank you, and thanks to all who helped with this release, especially  
translators.

> In particular, when asking for translation of such files as
> "Message.properties" relevant to the CSS Validator, they should either
> contain examples of actual validation outputs (warnings or errors), or
> some readme file should be attached with such examples.

While working with translators, I have indeed noticed that the  
instructions I was giving were often insufficient, so I welcome your  
idea that we could build more of a "kit for translators".

As an exercise, here are the three types of files that need  
translation, and how they need to be translated.

1) documentation and main interface (original files in English:  
*.html.en)
For these files, the translator should
- translate all text except the language menu (i.e ignore the content  
of       <ul id="lang_choice"> )
- translate the value of alt="..." and title="..." attributes
- NOT change the markup, or the targets of the links, or the values  
of ids and names
- keep the encoding as utf-8, without BOM (some editor software may  
not be able to do that)

2) results templates (original file in English: xhtml.properties.en)
This file is a little more complex. It is a template file which the  
Java program will read and expand. For this file, the work of the  
translator will be to:

- translate all text and values of alt and title attributes, in a way  
similar to the documentation
- NOT translate the keywords such as "no-error-or-warning: ". These  
are used by the program and should stay untouched.
- keep the encoding as utf-8
- be careful not to add line breaks in the text. If adding line  
breaks, make sure to escape them as follows:

This text will make the
validator crash

This text will keep\
the validator happy

3) error messages (original file in English: Messages.properties.en)
These files are similar to the result templates, but their content is  
text, not markup. In a way similar to 2), translators should make  
sure to:

- not translate the keywords before the colons (e.g "warning.same- 
colors:" should be left as is). Translate the text after the colon.
- understand that "%s" is a special substitution keyword that will be  
replaced by a value specific to the stylesheet validated. For  
example, in
Same colors for %s and %s
"%s" will be replaced by the two contexts in which the color is  
similar, and should not. Worth noting, when there are several  
substitution "%s" in a message, their order matters. This may make  
translation tricky in some rare cases. e.g:
The pseudo-class .%s can't appear here in the HTML context %s

[ I will put this as translation documentation, perhaps on the wiki,  
after I get some feedback ]

Now, onto the actual answer to your request: I agree that (some of)  
the messages are hard to translate without a little more context to  
understand them. But I am not sure that samples of CSS triggering the  
error would be useful.

Take for example
error.shape-separator: Invalid separator in shape definition. It must  
be a comma.
Would it be more useful to know that this can be triggered by:
P { clip: rect(5px 10px 10px 5px); }
?

Or would it be more useful to point to e.g http://www.w3.org/TR/REC- 
CSS2/visufx.html#value-def-shape and explain that the syntax of  
shapes need to have the parameters separated by commas, unlike a lot  
of other types of sequence of values in CSS?

I think, therefore, that what could really be useful, for translators  
as well as users, would be to have detailed explanations and pointers  
for some of the more complex messages, in a way similar to what is  
done in the markup validator for instance. This is no small project:  
Björn Höhrmann has been doing a great job of explaining some of the  
most annoyingly obscure error messages ( http://www.websitedev.de/css/ 
validator-faq ) but there is a lot of work left, especially if the  
explanations later have to be translated in all languages supported.  
But it could be really worth it...

Would anyone on the css validator community (ideally a 2-3 people  
task force) be eager to take this on?

Thank you,
-- 
olivier

Received on Thursday, 4 January 2007 20:44:03 UTC