Translations, trunk and series query for a no-code project

Asked by Roger Sperberg on 2009-04-16

I'm not a developer, so my understanding of version-control systems is pretty slim.

I thought the description of "series" made sense but actually I'm not so sure I grok "trunk," and so maybe I'm not so clear on series, after all. Anyway, I'm not sure how to establish a new series for the XML Copy Editor translations project that is current with the latest release of the program and have it clearly be the place where new things show up.

The project here is just for translations. The software development of XMLCE is hosted at SourceForge, and its developer (Gerald Schmidt) is happy with it there. However, when I began working (two years ago!) on a Khmer localisation, I found Launchpad's facilities incredibly helpful to keep my translations consistent with other programs (Khmer terms for many computer activities are still being coined and gaining consensus of them is key). So I started an XMLCE translation project back then.

This mostly served to improve my Khmer vocabulary by showing me computer terms in an application context, but Launchpad's process for migrating translated strings seemed really efficient. So Gerald and I talked about possibly basing all the translations at Launchpad.

At this point, the individual translators maintain their translated .po files, sending updated versions on their own schedule, which Gerald puts into the version-control system at SourceForge (he's using SVN).

Since I know that those are the latest translations for ten localisations, should I try to import them directly? Of course, I already have the ten .po files; is it simpler to just upload each one of them individually myself?

If Launchpad were hosting the source code, I think I could figure out how to manage the translation end of things, but without the older, current stable, and developing ... um, series? is that right here? or branches? ... anyway, I'm not clear on how I reflect these areas in the translation end.

Actually, I guess Gerald must have one .po file that he uses with development, adding strings as needed for new and revised features. (With the manual method, he simply mails this us-en file to people who have translated it so far.) And he obviously keeps a stable version for the current release separately. But, at the moment, translations for new aspects are all done post-facto and not through SVN except to load in completed new files as they show up.

The .po files in the Launchpad project at present belong to the 1.1 series of XMLCE. Version was released a couple days ago, and how I reflect that here is not clear to me. Other than there will be a new series, that is. But what's the trunk then? How does the series now called trunk become series 1.1?

It's also unclear what I do when Gerald adds an option to a dialog box in what will become If he makes the change in his SourceForge SVN, I can learn about it in a timely fashion. And then, what, I make a new team branch here for (Team branch so other translators can rely on this system too, right?.)

I hope I've included the right kinds of detail that explain my confusion and not buried the essentials in a mass of trivia. Thanks for helping me through this.

Roger Sperberg
firstinitial nospace lastname at gmail

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Aaron Bentley (abentley) said : #1

Hi Roger,

Series and branches can be confusing. A series usually corresponds with a branch, but branches often don't correspond to a series.

Our usual example of series is Apache 1.3 vs Apache 2.4. Trunk is represented in Launchpad as the "development focus".

It sounds like the best solution is for you to import the po files individually. I think If you only wanted to import from one SVN branch, you could also set up a vcs-import, and then configure Launchpad to automatically import from it.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Roger Sperberg for more information if necessary.

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