Re: GNUN setup issue

[Ineiev]

On 12/18/09, Yavor Doganov <address@hidden> wrote:
> What is so surprising?

Probably that GNUN documentation is placed next
to GNU Web Translators Manual, and I saw somewhere a sentence
like `check PO file before sending'; Anatoly pointed me to
http://www.gnu.org/software/trans-coord/manual/, and I read both.

Also, the documentation is so strict on checking; just imagine,
the translation passes (initial contributor)->(member * 2+)->
(translation team repository)->(coordinator)->(www.gnu.org)

> Requiring every translator to build and verify
> the .LANG.html is unrealistic.

Why? a random newcomer did it with little trouble; and I didn't
thought about it as a requirement, but a desirable thing. I think
this can save the coordinator's time, which is a very short
resource in my case.

> We have an official GNUN build job
> operating in www, and there are notifications for all kinds of errors.

Sounds reasonable.

> Membership is almost
> formal.  There are some teams with lots of members who do nothing, and
> others with a few members who process external contributions, thus
> advancing in their translation efforts much more.

I didn't know; though I could guess.

> I can always add you as a member to the trans-coord Savannah project if
> you want to experiment with the GNUN testbed there,

Actually, not by itself. What I want is a decent Russian
translation of www.gnu.org.

> and of course I can
> subscribe you to trans-coord-discuss if Anatoly is OK with this.

I really can't tell what Anatoly may think about it; I could not
get persistent contact with him.

The condition of the Russian part of www.gnu.org is really poor.
Let us look at the high priority translations:

1. The GNU project
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html
Historical translation by Сергей Короп, ten years old.
The best translation in this list, though marked as
`beta' and `unsupported by FSF'. I believe it should be
checked and updated, with older version moved somewhither
to the Russian team site.

2. Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
Very outdated and in other ways unsatisfactory translation.

3. Did You Say “Intellectual Property”? It's a Seductive Mirage
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
No translation.

4. Avoiding Ruinous Compromises
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/compromise.html
Ditto.

5. GNU/Linux Distros
http://www.gnu.org/distros/distros.html
Ditto.
 + Guidelines for Free System Distributions
   http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
   Ditto.
 + Explaining Why We Don't Endorse Other Systems
   http://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html
   Ditto.

Many months ago I thought I could help. I went to the translation team
main page and saw a dozen of active members. `There must be plenty of
working power within the team,' I thought (and was not wrong because
it is documented that inactive members have their `on duty'
flag cleared), `let us see the homepage on how to contribute
externally'. There is no homepage now, and at that time
there were no instructions on how to contribute. The conclusion is:
the team works privatly and needs no contributions, isn't it?

Then in October I returned to the team page once again and decided
something was misdocumented and I was to send the leader a message.
I wrote the project in my opinion needed help, and I could provide
some.

No immediate reply followed, I began to forget about it, but
two weeks ago I did get a reply. Anatoly seconded my assertion that
the project needs help and told me that he is effectively alone;
he wrote that the team mailing list had been renamed
s/wwwru/www-ru/, that is why the links on the main page were
dead, needed to be reported to the Savannah administration.
(the wording was unclear, I thought it was him to report,
but a week ago I realised it was me, and now they are perfectly
correct).

Anatoly suggested that I ask questions on the mailing list,
and I did; I asked about particular instructions, I requested
a task to perform: no reply followed. I concluded, probably
the team leader thought if somebody was so helpless that
he was unable to figure out it himself, there could not
be any use of him for the project.

Then I asked how to check PO files and GNUN usage; needless
to say about the result.

Since Dec 9, I submitted translations and suggestions
for fixes and updates; I posted them to address@hidden
and the team Bug Tracker. I passed through all the high priority
texts and some of those from the `team web' cvs repository.

After two or three days the team leader joined the mailing list,
so I think he does recieve the posts; however, there were quite
little amount of discussion, and I have not got any idea on
when and how the texts may get their way to the site. I admit
that I might post them in a wrong way, but I had no hints on
how to post them in the right one. I certainly don't understand
something essential here.

I hate to complain, I see it is counterconstructive,
but it is hard not to. I'm really sorry. I do want to help
the project and see no effective way to do.

> Back to your original problem: the culprit is that distros.pot does not
> correspond to distros.html for some reason.  I'll have to figure out why
> this is so by examining the logs, but after building your translation

Thank you, now it works.