Re: [Windows7sins-translators] GNUN support for windows7sins.org

[Yavor Doganov]

At Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:20:49 -0400,
Matt Lee wrote:
> > 1) Is there a SVN repository
> I have asked the FSF sysadmins to make one for translations.

I see that you've registered a project at Savannah.  But if the idea
is translations to be in a separate repository, that won't work.
There is an easy workaround, though.  In case the master files have to
reside elsewhere, you could provide read-only access (of the FSF
master repository) and we can checkout+update in a temporary dir and
then rsync to the translations' repository.

> > 3) How are the pages constructed?

> Most of the pages are made like this:

> The homepage is built differently:

> For each of the seven sins:

> then a bunch of include files.

This is going to be pretty hard.  In fact, all of the files are just
snippets, not standalone articles like those at gnu.org.  So I wonder
why some of them are .inc., and others .html?  We cannot assume some
logic in the sequence of #include statements, which means it has to be
predefined (i.e. hardcoded) somehow.  Probably doable, but not easy.

> Everything is HTML 4.01 strict.

I have an idea how to implement HTML 4 validation in a fairly
straightforward way, but we have to assume that a site has articles
only in ONE format, otherwise probing and re-validating will slow the
build tremendously, and it would be tricky to report the right error
message.

Osama KM wrote:
> But I think there are three questions need to be answered before
> changing the translation system (again):
> # Will windows7sins.org *need* a gettext-based translation system?
> # Are we going to change the website pages frequently? (This is where
> a gettext-based system is really useful.)
> # Is windows7sins big enough to need this system? (Even if it'll be
> frequently changed, is it as big as gnu.org?)

These are valid questions.

The size does not matter much -- even for small sites there's a
benefit (of course you are right that the larger the contents, the
greater the benefit).  But if windows7sins.org is going to be more or
less a static site, IOW, the files won't change or will change only
slightly in the lifetime of the campaign -- then I agree that
gettextized translations won't bring much.

I'll let you (the translators) and the campaign managers (Matt & co)
answer this; I don't have an opinion.  (For gnu.org the general
perception was that it is a static site, with changes only in
particular pages usually containing links.  But reality shows that
articles get rewritten, we reorginize stuff in other directories,
etc.  Although probably still "static" in web-developer parlance, it
is a moving target, and has always been.)

Meanwhile, I'll see how we can support the windows7sins.org layout --
even if you decide not to use GNUN, the work won't go completely in
vain, I believe.