Re: Infrastructure proposal (Re: Translating Emacs manuals is of strategic importance)

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2024 14:07:12 +0000
> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@traductaire-libre.org>
> Cc: Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>, Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com>, 
> Vincent Belaïche <vincent.b.1@hotmail.fr>, emacs-devel@gnu.org, rms@gnu.org
> 
> >> Now that we have emacs/doc/lang/[lg], what do you think of having
> >> something like emacs/doc/lang/drafts/[lg], where people would commit
> >> draughts to be proofread/validated?
> > 
> > I prefer to use special Git branches for that.  This is how we handle
> > any changes that are not yet ready to be landed on the master branch,
> > and I see no reason to invent special conventions for manual
> > translations.
> 
> What would be the best way to name the branch? It would be nice to have 
> a standard way of naming branches that include documents that require 
> proofreading, because it is less easy to find a branch than to find a 
> folder.

I don't care much about the names of these branches.  We could have
all of them under origin/translations/, for example, if that would
help.  The important thing is that the people who contribute know the
name and/or publish it when they need others to take a look.

Not everything needs to be codified in advance and rigidly.

> >> For each emacs release, the texi files would be compiled into
> >> appropriate formats (minimally info) so that people can easily install
> >> them.
> > 
> > That's part of the release procedure, so there's no reason to consider
> > it specially.
> 
> Maybe, but it’s a good thing that it is on paper so that translators 
> understand how their work is handled. We can’t expect translators to 
> understand the fine aspects of the Emacs release process.

It isn't a job for translators, it's a job for the Emacs maintainers.
And it's already "on paper": see admin/make-tarball.txt.

> >  We already have translated reference cards, for example
> > (see etc/refcards/ in the Emacs tree), from which we generate PDF when
> > a release tarball is prepared.
> 
> Do you suggest that the manuals could also be published as PDF?

No, I just gave an example how portions of the documentation that are
not in English are organically incorporated into the Emacs release
process.