Re: KDE translation - a critical point

[Mohammed Elzubeir <elzubeir at arabeyes dot org>]

On Sun, 2004-11-28 at 13:10 +0300, munzirtaha at newhorizons dot com dot sa wrote:

> Salam, I want to make everything clear regarding this topic. As I have
> mentioned before we, at KACST, have started a translation project more
> than one week ago. The project will last for only one month. Arabeyes
> KDE repository is not sync'ed properly to KDE's main repository. The
> translators and I faced a serious problem. After finishing translating
> files, we discover they have been removed from the KDE main
> repository. Lots of effort has been wasted. During the Last week, I
> was always hanging on IRC with Mr. Elzubeir to resolve those issues.

That's unfortunate. However, currently, I am not aware of any files that
are on Arabeyes' CVS but are _not_ in KDE's. You are probably comparing
the wrong things. There are, however, files that are in KDE's CVS but
not in Arabeyes'.

>  He was too busy to do it. After some time Mr. Elzubeir explained to
> me how to do a one-way sync from KDE to arabeyes and I did it. Again I
> discovered lots of files were still not sync'ed. I discussed it with
> him and he told me he would do the sync himself. Finally, he
> thankfully did a sync. Again I faced the same problem and wasted one
> week. The problem is mostly on the scripts that do the sync. I tried

There appears to be a problem with the script, correct. However, I also
think you are confusing templates/ and ar/ directories.

>  to go through the files one by one but found it to be a tedious,
> boring and time-wasting process. I told Mr. Elzubeir that I am annoyed
> of how things are going. He explained that he was very very busy. I
>  can understand this very well - nothing against this for sure. The
> problem is I am not volunteering now. I am working for a
> well-respected organization and they expect to see results. Yesterday,

Right. You are being paid to do a job and so you are expected to produce
results in a timely fashion. The good lot of us at Arabeyes are not.
Which means that whatever organization needs to produce this work needs
to work around our working schedules. The reality is, I too have a job
and am too expected to produce results in a timely fashion.

Welcome to Open Source and Volunteer based work.

>  I decided to put an end to this delemma and asked Mr. Elzubeir
> politely to resovle those issues or give me a direct access to KDE
> repository for two weeks only to try to catch up. He promised to reply
> to me today. I was hanging on IRC all day now but can't see kuru
> there. Hope he is OK. I have to make a decision today whether to

I am fine, but I am also extremely busy at work. I am taking time to
write this so you know I am well aware of the situation and am working
to resolve it. I have requested if a CVS account for Arabeyes could be
made (e.g. 'arabeyes' user) for KDE's CVS. I by no means have any plans
to give you (or anyone else for that matter) my own user/pass on KDE's
cvs server.

> suspend this project or not. Please, give me an official reply on the
> mailing list regarding this topic. -- Munzir Taha KACST 

This would be the "official" reply from me, the KDE Coordinator. 

Let me add some personal notes though:

You are complaining about a process that is tedioius and boring.. and
'annoying', yet, you are being paid for it. Why do you expect us at
Arabeyes, as volunteers, to do this tedious process for you according to
your own schedule? 

I mean, look, we all want a translated KDE. I personally appreciate
KACST's attempts to contribute to Arabization (despite the fact that is
the opinion of Arabeyes that these efforts could be channelled in a
better way).

Yes, you are unhappy with our processes and procedures and yes, they may
at times, become counter-productive and in the need for some serious and
critical review and improvement (just like my run-on sentences here ;).
But it is almost as if you are assuming someone is paying us to do this.
No, we are doing this in our free time, just like you used to do things
in your own free time (and still do other things in your own free
time). 

This is not so much an 'Arabeyes' issue, but a coordinator issue. Our
process has worked so far pretty well with all other projects but seemed
to have failed miserably with KDE. This is not because our procedures
themselves are faulty (though they do need to be improved), it is
because the coordinator (myself) is failing to allocate the time to
perform some of his duties. It so happened that these duties were called
for during a time where I cannot fulfill them.

In conclusion, like I have told you on IRC -- if you choose to suspend
KACST's translation, that is up to you and KACST. Otherwise, simply
translate what is available on Arabeyes' CVS and wait until I either get
a full verified sync done or provide you with an alternative solution (a
cvs account on kde as per your request).


-- 
Mohammed Elzubeir <elzubeir at arabeyes dot org>
Arabeyes