Useful communication tool for Mozilla web localization

Pascal Chevrel introduced me to an experiment he calls “main.lang string checker” that he created over the weekend.  With this tool, localizers and the l10n-drivers team at Mozilla can check the status of the main.lang file, which is a kind of “po” file we use on our static html sites.  Pascal has been meaning to create this tool for some time.  It’s not overly complex, but it will help when either the Mozilla QA team, a localizer, or Pascal (or Stas) asks about specific files not being translated.

For an example, let’s take a look at French locale’s page.  Here you’ll see a section titled “Missing strings.” and another named “Strings identical to English.”  At the bottom is a link to the French translations of the strings in the fr main.lang in SVN.  At this page, a localizer has a basic snapshot of the state of their team’s web l10n.

I see some quick and direct benefits:

1. Localizers can now see very specifically what l10n strings need examination
2. New localizaiton teams who have finished localizing the Firefox product can see the the web localization tasks ahead
3. Mozilla improves its communication regarding what specifically needs to be accomplished for a version to become official

This is just another starting point.  We’ll have to work on unifying all of the recent improvements and forthcoming changes we’ll be seeing over the next couple weeks and months.  But, please find your locale of interest to see what needs to be investigated and possibly translated.

Thanks, Pascal.

Tags: l10n tools, planet, web l10n | Categories: Uncategorized