ABX wrote:
> I.   What it is.
> 
>   I've started building multilingual translation system adjusted to
>   documentation of POV-Ray. I remember that some of POVers (including me)
>   promised some time ago that when 3.5 will be released they will
>   translate documentation to their own languages. I think that's the time.
>   But I think it could be wasting of time when each translator would build
>   own system with own tracker for changes, own design, etc. etc. I want to
>   simplify it to left as small amount of work as possible for busy POVers.
>   I remember there are some national communities so perhaps it is worth.

 That's a very nice initiative! I'm not really sure it is worth the effort, 
but well, it's *your* effort... :)
  
  I myself started to act as coordinator for the spanish translation, 
mainly because it seems there is not another volunteer. I setup a little 
site with php to handle the most basic tasks, but I was not planning any 
automated system nor anything complex, only a web page to gather some other 
volunteers, to help coordinating the overall style, and also to collect the 
sections translated.  It has a "translation status" page for the sections 
of the manual, a common dictionary for technical and ambiguous words (we 
have the added problem of multiple spanish variants for the american 
countries). The work method proposed was that each translator must give the 
section translated over the original HTML page, being free to choose the 
tool (text editor or HTML editor) to do the job, so my task as coordinator 
must be as simple as putting all the html files together.
 
> II.  What it can.
>   It will be possible to translate in cooperation (more than one
>   translator per language). No more than one translator per section at the
>   same time.

  Perfect! It will be also nice if it will support a "coordinator" for each 
language to "verify" the translations, or to permit some other registered 
translator to do it, to help homogenizing the style.

> III. What it need.
> 
>   I need translators. If you want to help in building community support
>   send to me your:
>     - email
>     - real name or nick
>     - speed estimation, for example: sentence per week, chapter per day,
>     1000
>       characters in an hour

  Count me in, but I don't fully understand this part. Are you thinking on 
hosting a single multilingual system, and coordinating yourself all the 
translations? Perhaps it will be better to create a system that permits 
custom installs for each language, so each translation can be hosted and 
coordinated separately. I think this is more apropiated, specially to help 
building local comunities.
 
>   If the list of workers will be really big I will setup some mail-driven
>   list or ask the team for use povray.documentation.inbuilt or separated
>   group on this server.

  Well, an official support is always nice. There is also the group 
p.international, which is not much used and perhaps can serve to coordinate 
your (very interesting) project.  Also, perhaps the multilingual system can 
reside at povray.org, if it is going to be a single system for all the 
translations. This can be really great too, but I'm willing it's too much 
work for the Team. 
  
-- 
Jaime Vives Piqueres

La Persistencia de la Ignorancia
http://www.ignorancia.org

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