Henning's Rosetta Presentation

This is a video presentation that I prepared as a replay of a spontaneous presentation I gave in Dallas to my new squad. It, like it's real-life predecessor, is intended to give Launchpad developers an introduction to Launchpad Translations and ease the learning curve when starting to hack on its code.

The Presentation

The presentation has four parts which build on each other.

• Part 1 introduces you to the basics of translating software and the standard gettext workflow.

• Part 2 explains how the gettext files are mapped into the Launchpad database.

• Part 3 shows how project maintainers, the Ubuntu guys and translators use Launchpad to get software translated.
• Part 4 lifts the hood and gives you a tour of the processes underneath Launchpad Translations.

The support material

Stuff that is referenced in the video. Please add whatever I forgot.

There is also a similar presentation that Adi and I gave on IRC during an Ubuntu Developer Week.

Part 1

• The GNU gettext manual

Here is an example POT file (i.e. a PO file without translations). The presentation does not mention the header which you see here which is marked by an empty msgid and contains meta information about the file.

msgid ""
msgstr ""
"PO-Revision-Date: 2005-05-03 20:41+0100\n"
"Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"

msgid "Thank You"
msgstr ""

msgid "You're welcome"
msgstr ""

Part 2

Here is a PNG export of the Dia file that documents the Launchpad Translations database schema.

Part 3

Here are some links on Launchpad to:

• Translations overview for a Project

• Translations overview for a Project series

• A PO template page in Launchpad

• A PO file page in Launchpad: translating happens here

• The import queue for a project (Try other projects if this is empty).

• The general import queue

• Translations overview for Ubuntu

• Translations overview for the Oneiric series

• Translations overview for a source package

• The Ubuntu import queue

Part 4

(nothing here)