[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tao Cheng) wrote in <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>Hello, all: > > >Thank you for participating the Mozilla Localization Project. In less >than 6 months, we have sixteen languages registered and two localization >tools, "MozExpTool" and "MozillaTranslator", submitted and utilized by >localization contributors. This is definite a great encouragement of the >open source project. It makes me so proud of being a participant of this >project. > >At the same time, after months of continuous efforts, the core >technology of the Mozilla is getting mature. The stability and the >performance of milestone builds improves release after release. It seems >to be the time to bring the Mozilla Localization Project a step further. > >Details follow. > > Primary Goal > > Utilize the contributed localization tools to localize the > Mozilla client M14 build into all the sixteen registered > languages. > > As of now, we are at the end of M13 milestone development > phase. In a few days, M13 will be on wire for public > consumption. Since this is the first public release after > Mozilla Alpha Release, lots features and improvement have been > checked in. It is safer to expect that the milestone release > after M13 be more stable and robust. Therefore, I'd like to > invite you to localize the M14 and ship all languages in the > same time frame as the English build. In other words, let's > ship all our language packs within 15 days, after the US build > ships. Although, nothing could prevent us from even shipping > language packs simultaneously with the US build! > > Status of the Language Packs > > There are sixteen languages registered on the "Localizing > Mozilla" page, > http://www.mozilla.org/projects/intl/xul-how2l10n.html#mlp. > They include Bosnian (bosnian-BA), Brazilian (Portuguese), > Catalan, Czech, Danish (da-DK), French, Georgian, German, > Greek, Hawaiian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish (es-CO > and es-ES), and Thai. While Czech, German, Japanese, and > Polish are at M12, Thai is at M10, Danish in M9, and Bosnian > at M8. There is great possibility that a Japanese M13 build > will be delivered soon after the US bit gets on wire. > > Status of the Localization and Leveraging Tools > > There are two contributed tools so far: the MozExpTool (by > Jordi Mas) and the MozillaTranslator (by Henrik Lynggaard). > > * MozExpTool. A VisualC++ based project. It is > designed to address the localization and leveraging > need of languages in single-byte charsets. Both > source code and WIN32 binary are available. More > detailed technical spec can be found here, > http://www.rebost.net/mozexptool/ . > * MozillaTranslator is a GUI-based Localization and > Leveraging tool written in Java. Although still in > development stage, it is suitable for both > single-byte and double-byte charsets including all > Latin-1, 2, and CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean): > nearly all languages covered by Unicode. The package > is available as a single jar file together with a > DOS batch driver. JDK.1.2.2 is needed to run the > program. > > How to proceed > > In the past, most of us work independently and randomly pick a > milestone build to work on. The drawback of this is that there > is little coordination among the team and result in less > productivity. To avoid such problem in the future, I'd like to > suggest that we participate in a more organized fashion: > > * Let's identify what is needed in the process of > localization and leveraging and distribute them among the > team. Here are a list of things I can think of now: > o Use localization/leveraging tools to improve our > productivity. It'd be a waste of time and error > prone if we need to localize each build from > scratch. With the MozillaTranslator or MozExpTool, > you can identify which strings are new and need to > be localized. > o Compile a glossary file from previous releases > (including Communicator 4.x) for reference. > Translation consistency and quality can be greatly > improved if there are glossary files for reference. > o QA the localization results. This is to have the > language pack reviewed and tested so that bugs or > flows can be identified beforehand and thus avoid > respinning of the localized builds. > o Push the localized build up to Mozilla.org's FTP > site. Once we push the localized builds up to the > FTP sites, I expect more people to download and use > them since the FTP download sites get more > visibility than the MLP's home page. > o Make formal announcement. In addition to the FTP > download sites, we can use the open source community > channels such as formal Mozilla Release > announcement, visible links in the Mozilla download > page, articles in the Mozillazine, and Mozilla > newsgroups. Other channels such as locale-specific > newsgroups are also good places to make our > contribution visible. > * In theory, we'd like to have them all and utilize them in > localizing M14. In reality, let's take advantage of the > best we can do and give it a shot. > * Please pass this invitation to the people you know might > be interested in participating MLP. > * Down load latest Mozilla Releases . M13 build is coming > out of the door. I'd encourage you to start with M13 and > then use the tools to leverage the results to M14 which > is expected to be a more mature and stable build. > * Follow the instructions in "Localizing Mozilla", > http://www.mozilla.org/projects/intl/xul-how2l10n.html. > > Coordination > > * Direct comments, feed backs, and questions to > news://news.mozilla.org/netscape.public.mozilla.l10n. > * Real time chats, IRC session, will be held weekly > (or from time to time when needed) to facilitate > project coordination, discussion and experience > sharing. > > Mozilla Open Source client v.s. Netscape branded client > > There will be planned beta releases (and the final RTM) of > Netscape branded builds. Netscape might choose to localize > some or all of them into languages such as German, French, > Japanese, etc... See FAQ for more information. > >Please direct questions and feedbacks to >news://news.mozilla.org/netscape.public.mozilla.l10n. Again, feel free >to pass this invitation to people you know might be interested. > > > >Regards, > >Tao Cheng > > >
