[Development] Using Transifex for handling Qt localization?

[Quim Gil]

On 05/15/2012 01:54 AM, ext Oswald Buddenhagen wrote:
> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 03:31:34PM -0700, ext Quim Gil wrote:
>> Dimitris Glezos from Transifex saw
>> http://qt-project.org/wiki/Qt-Localization . This is the page where we
>> explain how to localize the strings contained in Qt releases into other
>> languages.
>>
>> The next day he came with https://www.transifex.net/projects/p/qt/ ,
>> saying that here it is just in case we want to use that to handle
>> translations sanely. And he put me as maintainer, even if I have nothing
>> to do with all this (but I have a Transifex account, and some experience
>> using it for localizing Qt projects).
>>
>> Anybody interested? I don't want to be the maintainer and I don't need
>> to be involved at all.
>>
> you can assign it to me (Ossi). whatever may happen with that ...
>
>> Still, it feels like a better alternative than the current situation.
>>
> well, whatever. but the submission via gerrit cannot be bypassed in any
> case, unless you feel like fighting this out with nokia legal. have fun.

I do have fun learning about legal boundaries.  :)

But doh, I forgot about the CLA and I can only blame this to fierce 
multitasking.  :/


Questions that come to mind:

- How valuable is to have an efficient tool for handling translations 
between teams - as opposed to whatever process we have now? Are we happy 
with the current system? Do we believe we would improve significantly 
with a tool like Transifex?

- How different is it from a legal point of view to handle text string 
contributions as opposed to code contributions? At least strings alone 
don't bring/break features or mess with IPR.

If the extra strings would be VERY valuable and the legal risk would be 
LOW then an option to consider would be to organize translations in 
Transifex by communities that would not necessarily sign the CLA and 
then the language maintainers responsible of those strings would update 
the strings before a Qt release, going themselves through CLA... Or 
something like this.

If it's too hassle for too little benefit then let's close the Transifex 
project, or let's have it as a clearly external tool for whoever wants 
to use those ts files on their own, and that's it.

--
Quim