Re: Want to join KDE translation effort

[Youssef Chahibi <chahibi at gmail dot com>]

On Monday 08 October 2007 15:51:14 Turki Al-Marri wrote:
> السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

وعليكم السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته،
>
> As a huge fan of KDE I want to translate it to Arabic. I already
> checked out the PO files :)

Welcome aboard!

> But I have some questions:
> - Is there anything I need beside the PO files?
  Almost anything to translate is available in PO files, this includes GUI 
messages and documentation.
> - What should I translate trunk-kde3, trunk-kde4, or stable?

   We are working on trunk-kde4.
> - Do I have to do any configuration in KBabel?
  You only need to configure the plural forms expression as Abderrahim noted.
> - Does any distro ignore this translation and use its own? (I'm using
> Kubuntu right now)
   The only problem with Kubuntu is that they use, in addition to official 
translations (ours), translations made on Rosetta (Launchpad.net), which may 
cause some inconsistencies. See 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RosettaAndUpstreamCollaboration for more information.
> - What is the quickest way to preview the translation (nightly or
> weekly builds, localization packages, or something of that sort)

To build KDE4. See http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/KDE4 .
And then compile the PO file:
# msgfmt file.po -o file.mo
# cp file.mo /usr/share/locale/ar/LC_MESSAGES/

If you see any Arabic related bugs in KDE4, please report them 
(http://bugs.kde.org). You can ask about KDE4 related issues in #kde4-devel 
too.
> - Is there a calendar for IRC meetings somewhere?

No, but the #arabeyes is often active. Mailing lists are not so bad.
> - Is there any "sane" keyboard layout for Linux? (the current one
> treat ﻻ as one character, plus a number of weird stuff like shift+س=S)

Bug report: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8195
No, there is no sane one, but it is getting saner :).
> I know I asked a little too much, but bear with me :)

People who ask the right questions are rare, and so you are.

I am the person who coordinates KDE translation to Arabic (This is strictly 
what I can do in this busy period of time). There is a list of assigned files 
here 
http://cvs.arabeyes.org/viewcvs/translate/kde/trunk-kde4/messages/ASSIGNED?rev=1.10&view=log .  
Feel free to pick any unassigned file and make me know about your choice. See 
http://l10n.kde.org/stats/gui/trunk-kde4/ar/index.php for a more pleasant 
view.

> Peace.

Thanks for your interest.