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  • #2210516

    I need a tool, and it has to be FOSS.

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    by ansugisalas ·

    Right now there is a paradigm shift going on in translation, translators are subjected to the same wage pressures as everybody else, only we don’t have (or are not aware of) the sets of FOSS tools that (other) IT groups do.
    In the past, when translation was a more highly paid profession, there was a market for expensive professional CAT tools (comp.ass.translation), tools which a client could demand be used, to ensure that translation memories be compatible.
    With the wage pressures now in effect, these tools are indefensible, translators need to have free tools available, in order for the profession to stay viable.
    Now, one tool needed is one for working with text embedded in code; the code is usually supplied as xml, with huge amounts of tags splitting up strings of text.
    The translator needs to get the text together from inbetween the tags, then translate it, then fit it back in the gaps it came from (since a translation is seldom one-to-one, this means putting different materials in the holes than what was there originally, but potentially fitted for number of characters per line or something).
    This shouldn’t be very hard to do, or is it? After all, the tags allow the parser to see where these blobs of non-code begins and ends, so displaying the opposite selection (the non-code) should be a relatively simple matter, right?
    Also, keeping track of the spaces taken up by the non-code shouldn’t be impossible either, right?
    And splitting a file into two, original and replacement, by way of a “original+replacement” file (so called bilingual or uncleaned), shouldn’t be impossible either…
    So, I guess what I’m asking is, what tool could be the best basis? Which projects might be interested?

    There is a FOSS CAT tool out there, wordfast, but it’s having trouble with the xml, and the proprietary companies are doing their best to twist their file formats to keep compatibility down and monopoly up.

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