Thoughtless Ramblings

I’ve just commited the translations for xfce4-mount-plugin and ristretto Evaggelos sent me a couple of weeks ago. But why it took me so long?

A very simple reason (apart from lack of free time): It is a boring, tedious and error-prone procedure, especially if a lot of packages are affected.

When I receive a new translation, I must:

• Check and proof-read it
• Update my local SVN checkout from the central repository
• Add the file(s)
• Update the changelogs (why so? anyway..)
• Commit

Apart from being time-consumig, it is tremendously error-prone. I myself admit at least a major cock-up and a few minor ones since I got my subversion access a few years ago.

The task would be much more nicer if I could:

• Check and proof-read the translation (this one never goes away )
• Fire up a web browser (if I didn’t have one running)
• Log in the project’s transifex site
• Upload the translation

I am going to actively push for transifex’s deployment at the Xfce Project, effective immediately.

This could also lower the barrier for the distribution of upload rights, now limited to only one commited per language, and not all languages have a commiter, due to the project’s reluctancy of giving away svn access. Which is something reasonable, too.