It's a topic a bit more complex than "do we need it?". From my experience, using a tool like vertimus totally changed the way the french translation team (GNOME one, not openSUSE one) works. It suddenly was easier to understand what was happening, easier to know the status of each translation (under translating, waiting for proofreading, etc.), and also it helped attract new contributors. And the translation really improved a lot because of this.
Well, to be honest, after a period of "not finding translators", I had to reject some requests. Translation is an easy task by definition, so it's not hard to attracto contributors, especially if the project is well know, if it's not too big, and if there's a reward (opensuse boxes seem very effective :P). I don't see what's complex in doing something like: svn checkout url once, and then svn update the rest of the time. Of course integrating it in lokalize and poedit would be nice, but it's an enhancement more than a real need. About the applications, a simple tutorial on the wiki did the trick in my case (for the Italian team).
Now, if we also make it easier to commit things, or easier to translate with a specific app, this will remove a bottleneck, or lower the barrier of entry. And again, there will be more contributors.
Yes. But I don't agree with the "everyone can commit" policy.
Again, the plan would be to have the use of all those tools optional: you're not forced to use them if you don't want to use them. But having them improves the translation process and the translations in the long term.
As I said, I don't believe in the fact that the problem is on the translators side. I would really concentrate the effort in imposing _hard_ string freeze. The lack of respect of a string freeze is what, in my experience, made me lose more time. For the rest, the management of the translation process is basic, and can be summed up this way: * Count the strings. * Divide by the number of translators roughly. * Assign them the files * Translate * Proofread * Commit The only tasks done by non-coordinators are "Translate" and "Proofread". For the rest, it's really a question of opening OOo-calc and doing some sum. What you say might be true when there are a lot of strings and applications to translate like in KDE or GNOME, but for openSUSE it seems really a more costly investment than beneficial. With kind regards, Alberto --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-translation+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-translation+help@opensuse.org