Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-factory (341 mails)

["Carlos E. R." <robin.listas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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On Friday, 2009-02-13 at 10:03 -0000, Rob OpenSuSE wrote:

> 2009/2/13 Carlos E. R. <>:
>
> > As a translator, I can tell you that it is quite difficult (for me) to
> > translate a manpage, because there is no useful manpage writing program -
> > ie, one that does not require the writer to be a programmer.
>
> The man pages are simple text files with a few processing commands
> like .TH, .SH, .P, .br in them.  So something like Gedit, Kate or
> Notepad is all that's needed.

I know, but that is far from what I want. A programmer can be happy with 
that, a user (writer, translator) wants WYSIWYG.

Yes, I have written (translated) man pages. I know what I say. It is 
doable, but not easy. I have to concentrate on the interface instead of 
the text.

The fact is, most translated man pages are obsolete, and if it is really 
wanted to improve on that side, better tools are needed. I can't be very 
wrong considering how few pages are translated and of those how few are 
current. As for myself, I only translate a man page if I'm very, very 
interested in the particular project.

   Or else... find a new format, with easy writing tools, and use it
   distribution wide. No more man, info, html, pdf.


> Some links explaining how man pages are created
> http://www.fnal.gov/docs/products/ups/ReferenceManual/html/manpages.html
> http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Man-Page.html
>
> As the subject matter is very technical, I'm wondering how someone not
> able to understand formatting directives (and avoid changing them)
> would be able to accurately translate the pages, leaving command and
> environmental names as is.
>
> Are you feeling that some kind of display tool is needed, to provide
> instant feedback on changes?

Exactly. Well, no. Not a display tool, but a full WYSIWYG editor. Text 
mode is fine, no GUI needed.

You can have a look at "manedit". It is poorly maintained, does not 
support UTF (at least, as far as I know, of version 0.8.3. This is the 
closest tool I have been able to find.


There are other tools that say can do it, but are broken. For example: 
LyX.

And no, docbook is another no-no. It is not WYSIWYG or WYMIWYG.

- -- 
Cheers,
       Carlos E. R.
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