Attached is the original newsletter. Enjoy !
Adam Bogacki,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--- Begin Message ---
Hi,
This week: the L10N project.
The L10N project (http://l10n.openoffice.org/) includes both localization
and internationalization efforts. And it has lately become a scene of some
very exciting activity. OpenOffice.org now has a community-sponsored
Hungarian localization (translation and adaptation) of the code. This in
itself is quite good; but what is nothing short of amazing is the speed with
which it was made: less than a week. Considerably less than a week.
I will let Noll Janos, who sent this account in to the L10N mailing list to
tell the story*:
Hi!
Maybe this is a bit off-topic, but I think you'd all be somewhat
interested...
Several people in Hungary have had enough of not having a free, open
translation of the OpenOffice[.org] suite. (We have seen a now about 20% [of
a] free translation, which began 8 months ago; it is being coordinated
partly by Magosanyi Arpad, who is marked as the Hungarian contact person on
the OpenOffice.org website. This project is independent of him.)
Let's start with the "story" part: We (3 people) decided that we would do
the translation from null, in just 3 days!
Yes, that's right, 3 days, from the 1st of February to the 4th February. We
got a machine-equipped room from the Technical University of Budapest,
several sponsors took care of the food (mostly pizza) and drink (soft
drinks, cola).
The project began on last Friday afternoon, and lasted until Monday morning,
and was mostly nonstop. About 12-16 people were in the project room at a
time, and about a 100 people collaborated over the 'net, using our special
PHP/CGI script. We translated the approximately 21000 strings that the
localize tool had extracted, in about 36 hours, then we proceeded to
building, testing and correcting the result.
We didn't translate the help (and the "long" tooltips), and didn't localize
the "files" (autotext templates, etc.), but I think even without these, this
is a pretty good result. We have a webpage written in Hungarian language on
http://office.fsf.hu. I don't think this will interest you, and some photos:
http://office.fsf.hu/work/photos/.
We have appeared in several newsites here, and also had an appearance in the
public radio.
--
*Edited slightly
The full exchange, starting with Noll's account, can be read on the thread:
http://l10n.openoffice.org/servlets/BrowseList?listName=dev&by=thread&from=5
629.
I'll add that the importance of this project, and the ease with which it was
executed, can't be overemphasized. OpenOffice.org is an international
program and project; that it can be localized in three blistering days is
remarkable, and that there are people out there who not only know how to do
this but are willing to contribute so importantly to the project is very
encouraging.
Congratulations!
Louis Suarez-Potts
Community Manager
Newsletter/Spotlight index:
http://www.openoffice.org/editorial/spotlightindex.html
An HTML version of the article above can be found at
http://www.openoffice.org/editorial/spotlight20.html; an abbreviated version
is in the "Spotlight" box on the homepage.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--- End Message ---
