KDE... What now?

[Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj <aalarfaj at gmail dot com>]

Salam all,

In the past few weeks Mohammed and I discussed the issue of KDE quite
a bit. The situation is this; We may be seeing that this translation
project is 99% complete and may think that this project is "done", but
in truth the translations need a lot of work to be even remotely
usable. I

Sometimes the translations leave a lot to be desired in terms of eloquence:
kdeedu/kturtle.po:
Found unsupported node named '%1' in the tree.
وجدت عقدة غير مدعومة سميت ' %1 ' في الشجرة.

In the same file parameter is at times translated as "وسيط" and at
others translated as "معلم" (inconsistency aside, both translations
are wrong)

At times the translator expresses strong misunderstanding of English
and a stubborn uncomprimising unwillingness to use a dictionary:
Indent => الطلب الرسمي

unindent =>  طلب غير رسمي

Sometimes, its not just the translations themselves but the very
Arabic grammar is appalling. This does not look like the work of a
native speaker to me:
kdeedu/kalzium.po:
What does %1 look like? => ماذا %1 يَبْدو مثل؟

No picture of %1 found. => لا صورةَ %1 وَجدتْ

Sometimes its pretty obvious the translator has no idea what he is
translating or what it means or what its used for etc... etc...:
kdebase/kdebase_desktop.po:
Name=DDD => Name=دي.دي.دي

And finally sometimes the translations are downright
oh-god-when-will-the-day-be-over careless:
kdemultimedia/noatun.po:
Automatically play &first file => تلقائيا


This is the tip of the iceberg. Walk through the files any time and
you wont be happy. This project needs to be dragged to the
intensive-care unit and kept there, continously worked on by able and
well-trained translators until further notice. I proposed to Mohammed
months ago that I assume maintainership of KDE when the time is right
(for me). He said sure, and was very much for the idea. The time is
now right for me, and I'd like to make this the main focus of my
Arabeyes work after Core.

The sooner I (or anyone) can get a hold of this project and it's CVS
syncing process the better off it will be. I am by no means telling
you all what will happen. This is just a proposal, and I wont assume
maintainership without the backing of a majority of the Arabeyes
translation veterans.

So, in other words, I seek your support in this. Please be quick with
replies before Mohammed gets too busy to show us the ropes! If anyone
else would like to assume maintainership, by all means speak up. Now
is the time :-)

Salam,

Abdulaziz,