Align translation workflow with other repos (+CrowdIn)

[benjaoming]

Pending further decision: This was initially discussed with the assumption that translation happened on CrowdIn, which it currently doesn't (but have?). Edit: Some translations were removed from CrowdIn and we need a different way of adding them so only essential parts are translated.

Suggestion from meeting:

• Update steps of the README to live in Make targets. See: kollibri-docs, kolibri and kolibri-server for patterns

• Potential make targets:

  translation-extract: Extracts messages from .isl to .po sources
  translation-build: Builds new .isl files from .po sources
  translation-upload crowdin-branch=<id>: uploads source messages to CrowdIn (set CROWDIN_API_KEY environment)
  translation-download crowdin-branch=<id>: downloads source messages from CrowdIn (set CROWDIN_API_KEY environment)
  

  Note that kolibri-server contains the latest pattern for uploading/downloading to CrowdIn: https://github.com/learningequality/kolibri-server/blob/master/Makefile#L10

• Maybe we should move python-scripts in /src to /tools, since they are not technically source files but build tools.

[indirectlylit]

This was initially discussed with the assumption that translation happened on CrowdIn, which it currently doesn't (but have?).

huh?

crowdin project here: https://crowdin.com/project/kolibri-windows-app

[radinamatic]

@indirectlylit Issue refers to the strings within the Windows installer, not the Kolibri taskbar app (Kolibri.exe), that already has the strings on Crowdin.

There used to be another project on Crowdin previously, containing the Windows installer strings, that got lost in translation (sic!) at some point, and I do hope the translations to Spanish are still somewhere in the TM.

Installer strings were translated fully only into Spanish, and the rest of languages that come by default with InnoSetup still display a few strings in English, while the majority of languages supported in Kolibri are not present:

I remember that the full set of strings for the Windows installer was very long (endless list of errors and Windows alerts majority of which I never saw in all the years testing Kolibri on Windows), and when we reestablish the project, we might aim to include only the strings that appear in 5-6 steps visible in the default installation.

[radinamatic]

@indirectlylit This is the full set of strings for the installer:
#165

[benjaoming]

i remember that the full set of strings for the Windows installer was very long

On the bright side, those many rarely exposed strings probably don't change much, so we can make a list of strings to ignore when creating .po files with the extract-isl-stings.py script.

Or extract them into a separate low-priority.po file (but I think translators would translate anyways to get to 100%).

[indirectlylit]

There used to be another project on Crowdin previously, containing the Windows installer strings, that got lost in translation (sic!) at some point, and I do hope the translations to Spanish are still somewhere in the TM.

i remember that the full set of strings for the Windows installer was very long (endless list of errors and Windows alerts majority of which I never saw in all the years testing Kolibri on Windows), and when we reestablish the project, we might aim to include only the strings that appear in 5-6 steps visible in the default installation.

Ah yes, this rings a bell. These were in fact uploaded to the same Windows crowdin project at one point.

During the 0.13 translation push, I had to delete them because they completely threw off our estimates to external translators (we had budgeted about 100 words total for the Windows project).

Agreed that if possible, we should identify the strings we actually need and systematically get just those translated.

[comradekingu]

Is it just me that finds using a closed source and lackluster tool that employs tracking and spying doesn't help

bridging the digital divide, through creating and supporting tools that enable access to high-quality educational opportunities for the disconnected world.

Edit: Put it on Hosted Weblate instead.

[benjaoming]

@comradekingu This ticket aims to just align the practices of a very small set of translations, but there are many more translations and translators in the Kolibri repository itself. CrowdIn is a platform that supports creation of Open Source, but isn't open-source itself? It's a bit like having code on Github? I'm pretty sure that it's out of reach for what the i18n coordinators would want to do, they have a lot of translators already trained and working with CrowdIn, and I think that the people from that platform have been very helpful in this whole process. We'll let them know that there exists a self-hosted solution.

But I'm really glad you pointed to Weblate, am going to have a look at it for some other Open Source projects, as sadly another friendly-to-open-source-but-closed-source platform Transifex has been a more pressing issue to me as a maintainer (actually thought about moving stuff Transifex=>CrowdIn for those reasons).

[comradekingu]

@benjaoming It isn't like having code on GitHub, since developers mostly interact with code in other ways. The rest of that argument favors other platforms, but those aren't as good comparatively. Crowdin says it supports Open Source, but it is actually not true, and more than anything the other way around. Crowdin isn't gratis for libre software projects unless they are non-commercial in terms of ways of being funded, and they also require such projects to contribute to its closed TM.

Read the Crowdin terms and conditions and Cookie policy and tell me what you think of someone recommending that sort of thing with a smile. I thought so.

Crowdin doesn't permit anyone to even see its code-base, nor self-host. Hosted Weblate doesn't compare in terms of terms and services either. You will find Transifex just as egregious. The various Kolibri projects have been on Crowdin 3-4 years, and has abysmal coverage to show for it. That is par for the course, and I wouldn't be surprised to see quality also suffering.