i18n and templates

sepastian · 2009-11-11 08:27:36

Hello,

I was about to translate some entry into German. The original entry in English uses the 'Warning' template. This template (and probably many others as well) prints 'Warning' -- which should read 'Warnung' when translated into German.

Is there a way of specifying a target language when using a template? Do I have to create a new template for other languages than English?

Best,
-sebastian

karol · 2009-12-01 14:58:46

There is a meta-template http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Template:Box
You simply write the desired text, be it 'Note', 'Warnung' or 'bLaH'.

Berseker · 2010-04-11 10:42:54

I write here since I had almost the same question.. I'm Italian and I was wondering if there is a way to translate an entire template like the [out_of_date] or {stub} one, which contains a short description, into a language different from english (not only the "title" word like explained by karol)

If there isn'a way to do so, I could simply create a clone of the templates with the translation, Can I?
I mean, I could create a {out_of_date_(Italian)} template..

Thanks

Gen2ly · 2010-04-12 03:07:03

Well, our general consensus before was that the Wiki page names and categories were to be in English follow by the localized language (i.e. Arch Compared to Other Distributions (Español). This is the way that Wikipedia does it and helps us facilitate and administer varying locals. As for as templates are concerned, I'm not sure that this changes for them or not. I suppose that new templates for them, but I'd like to ask the other Wiki admins and see what they think.

Last edited by Gen2ly (2010-04-12 03:07:42)

pointone · 2010-04-12 03:57:59

This is a tricky subject.

As determined in our last major discussion on the topic of ArchWiki internationalization, the ideal solution is for international communities to maintain separate wikis.

Another possible solution, in my mind, would require installation of the ParserFunctions extension, which would allow for code like {{Out of date|Language}} to generate an appropriate localized message.

I am somewhat opposed to the prospect of translating templates individually, as this would begin to clutter the template namespace. Consider ~20-30 templates for each of ~20 languages and you begin to see the problem. Yes, we could create separate [[Category:Template (Language)]] categories to help organize templates, but I nonetheless fear a maintenance nightmare.

As it appears we are moving toward separate international wikis in the long term, I believe translation efforts are better spent on updating existing translations and adding new translations for the most popular pages. However, as one who speaks only English (and French, to a small degree) I cannot fairly judge how beneficial translated templates would be. If you believe they would drastically improve wiki navigation and facilitate editing/translating work, please feel free to contribute new templates of the form [[Template:Out of date (Italiano)]] as per the internationalization guidelines.

Berseker · 2010-04-12 06:31:56

Well, this thing will not improve drastically the wiki navigation, and since I felt that it would be a pain in mantaining 20 translations of the templates, I Just wondered if there was a simpler way.. I think me and the italian translation team will focus on more useful translations.

Anyway, why

we are moving toward separate international wikis in the long term

?
I don't think that's a really good idea.. even if moving the entire contents of the wiki into another doesn't seem to be impossible.

Thanks for your support!

pointone · 2010-04-13 14:11:19

Currently, searches are muddled with results from all languages, and system messages and templates are not easily translated. With cooperation from the administrators, we can enable interwiki linking such that [[it:pacman]] links to the pacman article on the Italian wiki, for example, and the Italian wiki can easily ensure that [[en:pacman]] links back to the English version. Maintaining separate wikis is the cleanest solution, and it should not be difficult to simply copy-and-paste content from this wiki to another.

karol · 2010-05-27 00:38:16

I've asked this question before http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 46#p675546 : why not 'elevate' languages (their ISO codes) to the urls, as Wikipedia (MediaWiki?) and Gentoo Wiki http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Main_Page does? I've no idea how to do this, but please when you're at it, create separate rss/atom feeds one per language. Package and bugtracker feeds have awesome granularity http://www.archlinux.org/feeds/ - it would be great to have sth like that for the wiki.

> Currently, searches are muddled with results from all languages
That move would solve this problem, you would search only within a given namespace. If you like, you may perform another search for another lang (f.e. French) or check the French version of the article you found lacking in English.

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 43#p677943

pwd wrote:

The only sane solution is to have different namespaces for each language, but that's just not happening. Proposed before/turned down.
English speaking admins just can't do a good job with content they can't understand, and vice versa.

I don't get it: wiki is a community effort and spam is rather easy to spot. If I follow the wiki and blow sth up - tough.

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 72#p744272
This sounds nice too.

User pages _can be_ "multilingual" too:
http:/en.wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/User:Pointone
http:/fr.wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/User:Pointone

I see categories as folders and articles as files. Languages (locales) are orthogonal to the fs.
Templates are dealing w/ presentation of the given data and as such they should be language-agnostic. Yes, that would mean creating many localized templates.

> we are moving toward separate international wikis in the long term
Why? It's easier for me to just translate 30 short templates than to learn how do you set up a server, configure wiki engine etc.

Last edited by karol (2010-05-27 01:13:46)

tlaloc · 2010-05-27 12:07:15

You may have still missed some previous discussion on this issue:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=95360

karol · 2010-05-27 12:28:22

> You may have still missed some previous discussion on this issue
No I didn't.

karol wrote:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 72#p744272
This sounds nice too.

They are both reasonably fresh threads so I picked the one I had more to comment on. If a discussion is expected to move to another thread, please write so and request closing the previous thread.

I simply would like sb to look at my ideas and say "_this_ is not going to happen but _that_ might fly". I'm not a dev, I'm not going to code anything I just think that the magic behind Wikipedia's language namespaces is nice. Whether it's doable and maintainable - I have no idea.

tlaloc · 2010-05-27 12:36:03

I see - my fault.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-11 08:27:36

i18n and templates

#2 2009-12-01 14:58:46

Re: i18n and templates

#3 2010-04-11 10:42:54

Re: i18n and templates

#4 2010-04-12 03:07:03

Re: i18n and templates

#5 2010-04-12 03:57:59

Re: i18n and templates

#6 2010-04-12 06:31:56

Re: i18n and templates

#7 2010-04-13 14:11:19

Re: i18n and templates

#8 2010-05-27 00:38:16

Re: i18n and templates

#9 2010-05-27 12:07:15

Re: i18n and templates

#10 2010-05-27 12:28:22

Re: i18n and templates

#11 2010-05-27 12:36:03

Re: i18n and templates

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