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Translation

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Scott Wilton edited this page Jan 31, 2017 · 14 revisions

Overview

The IUF Rulebook is written in LaTex, which is a typesetting programming language. This allows us to take plain text with some formatting rules which is then automatically compiled into a nice looking pdf document with automatically numbered sections, generated Table of Contents with in-document hyperlinks and other features. It also allows for a nice system of translation through the Transifex website. Volunteers that are only helping with the actual translation can proceed to the "Translation Volunteers" section below.

Behind the scenes: Preparing the translation

The translation process proceeds as such:

  1. The English IUF Rulebook is written in LaTeX
  2. The English rulebook is committed using git and pushed to the GitHub server.
  3. The automatic build processes is started using Travis CI
  4. The build process takes each chapter and produces 'strings' of text to be translated
  5. These strings are uploaded to the Transifex server for translation
  6. IUF Volunteers translate these 'strings' into other languages
  7. Approved IUF Volunteers review and confirm these translations to ensure they are correct and preserve LaTeX formatting
  8. The build process downloads the translated strings from Transifex
  9. Anywhere a string has been translated, it is applied to the rulebook for that language
  10. The build process creates a translated pdf output of the rulebook. For any string that has not yet been translated, the build uses the original English text.
  11. The translated pdf is uploaded to the IUF server where users can view the draft translated rulebook.
  12. Possible last step: After complete translation of the rulebook into a language, the IUF Board could vote to accept the translation as the IUF Rulebook for that language.

Translation Volunteers: How to use Transifex

Transifex is a sophisticated translation platform that the IUF uses for its Rulebook translation.

First steps

In order to help with the translation process, you must create an account and join the IUF translation team.

Create an account

Sign up for a transifex account here: https://www.transifex.com/signup/

  1. Create a username and password.
  2. Fill out some additional information. Under Department choose "Localization" and under Job Title choose "Translator". Fill out additional information
  3. Choose "join an existing project". join an existing project
  4. Add the languages that you speak. Make sure to choose the base version of the language (e.g. 'fr'). In addition, you can choose the country-specific version of the language if you like (e.g. 'fr_CA'), but the base language is of most importance. Add languages
  5. Click 'get started' and then confirm your email address

Join the IUF Team

The easiest way to Join the IUF Team is to get to the current Rulebook project page here: https://www.transifex.com/iuf/rulebook-2017/ Then click join team. Join team

You can also search for "IUF Rulebook" and join the "Rulebook: 2017" project.

You should now be able to see (upon refreshing) the Rulebook: 2017 project dashboard. Dashboard

Translating

Before Translating

With your account on Transifex now set up, you are ready to begin translating. Before you begin translating, please confirm with the IUF Rulebook Director (Scott Wilton) or your language's coordinator (e.g. François Werner for French) to confirm where your translation efforts should be focused.

Also, read the guide on the Transifex website on how to use the web editor for Translation. Transifex Guide. After reading that guide, come back here for some specific notes for our project. The following text assumes that you have already read the Transifex Guide to the web editor.

Starting to Translate

For the IUF Rulebook, the "list of resources" is divided up by Rulebook Chapter (e.g. urban_jumps, or road_racing). Select the chapter given to you by a translation coordinator to begin translating.

The strings available for translation are shown in the order that they are written in the IUF Rulebook for that chapter. The strings may be headers, chapter names, titles, paragraph text, etc. Really anything that could be translated in the Rulebook, in the order things are displayed in the rulebook. In general, short text is a header or section title of some sort, while longer text is actual rule text.

Along with simple text, there will also be some LaTeX markup (or commands) that describe things about how the text should be displayed. The next section will go over that in more detail. In the Transifex Guide (the one you just finished reading remember), it mentions the copy function. Copy icon If the text you are translating has any LaTeX markup in it, it is best to use the copy function and replace the text with the markup exactly.

LaTeX Markup and How to Translate Around It

The translation software automatically removes most LaTeX markup, but some of it must be left in because it is relevant to the translation. One example is when a few words are bolded in a sentence, when translated, those words should still be translated.

Here is an explanation of many of the relevant LaTeX markup commands, to help you translate correctly. The majority of LaTeX commands start with \ but not always.

  • \textbf{word} - This makes "word" bold. For example This is \textbf{two bold} words. becomes: "This is two bold words."

  • \textit{word} - This makes "word" italics.

Choices of Words in the Rulebook

According to a new proposal in the Main Rulebook committe

Unclear, confusing, or poor Rulebook Text

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