Re: Emacs user manual in Spanish

[Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com>]

Here is one little suggestion: Why not try using Google Translate for
the roughest, but most complete start, then have people clean it up
where necisary?
-- 
Devin Prater
      assistive Technology Instructor in training
      World services for the blind
      

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

>> Manuals are very tricky if they should be
>> translated or not.
>> 
>> In a perfect world the Emacs techno-science
>> conglomerate would hire professional tech
>> translators to get the job done.
>> 
>> However, in the imperfect anomaly which is the
>> current realm, those efforts are put on
>> enthusiasts that often underestimate the effort
>> and time to do a complete, proofread
>> translation. And when it comes to a manual, an
>> incomplete one may often be an injustice.
>
> An incomplete - or badly translated - manual might
> be an injustice.  But it might still be useful.
> And an incomplete manual is not necessarily an injustice.
>
> Not really wanting to get into this discussion (in
> particular, I know nothing about it), here is a
> comment anyway.
>
> Rather than viewing that task as all-or-nothing:
> (1) translate an entire manual and (2) keep it
> up-to-date, perhaps an incremental, informal,
> contributor-best-effort approach could be taken.
>
> That's how it works on Emacs Wiki, for example.
> Users interested in translating a given wiki page
> do so.  They need not be interested, qualified, or
> have the time to translate other pages.  Every
> contribution can help.  And others can then update
> pages or fix both technical and translation bugs.
>
> Perhaps the HTML GNU Emacs manuals could offer a
> similar possibility: Allow for anyone to translate
> a given section into a given language, or update
> such a translated section.
>
> There could also be a "locked" version of such a
> page, which is deemed pretty good at some point and
> serves as an informal reference, while an unlocked,
> "sandbox" version is open for anyone to improve upon.
>
> This wouldn't preclude any systematic, thorough
> translation effort.  It would offer something less
> but easier for people to contribute to.  GNU would
> not need to swear by the authority or authenticity
> of such doc.  But it could still be quite helpful.
>
> Presumably anyone could already work on this, just
> by creating Emacs-Wiki pages that are translations
> of manual sections.  IOW, it wouldn't even need to
> be hosted by GNU.  Dunno whether there are copyright
> considerations that get in the way in that case,
> however.
>
> Just an idea.