[PAL-en] Au sujet de la localisation de Site Internet

["Don Osborn" <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-------> [ENGLISH] AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION NOT REVISED FROM THE ORIGINAL IN french


[ message of Alf@net, with some small modidfications to facilitate the
automated translation ]

Hello with all,

I would like to obtain some councils about the translation of
Internet sites.

The site Alf@net (www.alfanet.anafa.org) is currently in French,
English and wolof. It currently uses a technique house based on simple
files XML in which the character strings in the 3 languages are
stored. The character strings are then imported dynamically with PHP.
That functions well, but we possibly wish to translate the site in 5
other national languages of Senegal. Thus I tried to find a better
technique.

I thus tested the method GETTEXT which seems to be more standard. This
technique makes it possible to store the translations in files PO
which are much more convivial to handle by the translators. The
technique functions with wonder on my servor localhost (WAMP5: we work
under Windows), but when I transfer the files on the servor Web from
my shelterer [ web.hosting.service ], nothing goes any more!

After several working hours I identified 2 problems:

1. Initially, it seems that the language (local) must be preset on the
servor of the shelterer. If not, the order setlocale of GETTEXT does
not function. Since the national languages of Senegal are not defined
at my shelterer then only English and French function!

2. Then, the original chains of our site are in French, and not in
English. They are encodées in UTF-8 and not in US-ASCII. Therefore,
in the files PO, the chain msgid are encodées in UTF-8. On the
servor, only the msgid not containing accents (éèçëà, etc.) are
translated: we thus have a translation partial of our English site.
Handbook GETTEXT indicates to us that the msgid must obligatorily be
encodés in US-ASCII! It is a little ridiculous for a system which
aims at internationalization!

Extract of the handbook gettext:

?Note that the msgid argument to gettext is not subject to character set
conversion. Also, when gettext does not find .a translation for msgid, it
returns msgid unchanged ? independently of the current output character set.
It is therefore recommended that all msgids be US-ASCII strings.?
I wonder all the same which is the major difference between my servor
WAMP5 and my shelterer, if somebody can put to me on a track.

In conclusion, we must give up the system temporarily, while trying to
find a better solution. I thus cause your support if ever you already
concentrated yourselves on the problem of the localization of Internet
sites and that you have relevant experiences to divide.

I would like also to invite you to reflect on the following problems:

* In general, one always translates out of English. But if one must
translate out of another language because our translators do not
control English? It is often an obstacle met in French-speaking, or
Portuguese-speaking Africa.
 
-
The Team Alf@net, Ousmane and Issa, Dakar, Senegal
http://www.alfanet.anafa.org