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| <h2>Spotlight: On Developers and Technology</h2> |
| <p><i>2002-02-20</i> |
| <p> |
| <h4>Spotlight 20: On Community Localizations--Hungarian</h4> |
| <p>The L10N project includes both localization and internationalization efforts. |
| And it has lately become a scene of some very exciting activity. OpenOffice.org |
| now has a community-sponsored Hungarian localization (translation and adaptation) |
| of the code. This in itself is quite good; but what is nothing short of amazing |
| is the speed with which it was made: less than a week. <i>Considerably</i> less |
| than a week. </p> |
| <p>I will let Noll Janos, who sent this account in to the <a href="http://l10n.openoffice.org.">L10N</a> |
| mailing list to tell the story*:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>Hi! </p> |
| <p>Maybe this is a bit off-topic, but I think you'd all be somewhat interested...</p> |
| <p>Several people in Hungary have had enough of not having a free, open translation |
| of the OpenOffice[.org] suite. (We have seen a now about 20% [of a] free translation, |
| which began 8 months ago; it is being coordinated partly by Magosanyi Arpad, |
| who is marked as the Hungarian contact person on the OpenOffice.org website. |
| This project is independent of him.) </p> |
| <p>Let's start with the "story" part: We (3 people) decided that we |
| would do the translation from null, in just 3 days!</p> |
| <p>Yes, that's right, 3 days, from the 1st of February to the 4th February. |
| We got a machine-equipped room from the Technical University of Budapest, |
| several sponsors took care of the food (mostly pizza) and drink (soft drinks, |
| cola).</p> |
| <p>The project began on last Friday afternoon, and lasted until Monday morning, |
| and was mostly nonstop. About 12-16 people were in the project room at a time, |
| and about a 100 people collaborated over the 'net, using our special PHP/CGI |
| script. We translated the approximately 21000 strings that the localize tool |
| had extracted, in about 36 hours, then we proceeded to building, testing and |
| correcting the result. </p> |
| <p>We didn't translate the help (and the "long" tooltips), and didn't |
| localize the "files" (autotext templates, etc.), but I think even |
| without these, this is a pretty good result. We have a webpage written in |
| Hungarian language on <a href="http://office.fsf.hu">http://office.fsf.hu</a>. |
| I don't think this will interest you, and some photos: <a href="http://office.fsf.hu/work/photos/%20">http://office.fsf.hu/work/photos/.</a></p> |
| <p>We have appeared in several newsites here, and also had an appearance in |
| the public radio.</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <p>The full exchange, starting with Noll's account, can be read on the <a href="http://l10n.openoffice.org/servlets/BrowseList?listName=dev&by=thread&from=5629">thread</a>. |
| </p> |
| <p>I'll add that the importance of this project, and the ease with which it was |
| executed, can't be overemphasized. OpenOffice.org is an international program |
| and project; that it can be localized in three blistering days is remarkable, |
| and that there are people out there who not only know how to do this but are |
| willing to contribute so importantly to the project is very encouraging.</p> |
| <p>Congratulations!</p> |
| <p>-Louis Suárez-Potts<br> |
| Community Manager</p> |
| <p>*Edited slightly.</p> |
| <p><a href="spotlightindex.html">Spotlight Index</a></p> |
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