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Re: [xliff] XLIFF 1.0 issues

  • 1.  Re: [xliff] XLIFF 1.0 issues

    Posted 04-14-2002 06:53
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    Subject: Re: [xliff] XLIFF 1.0 issues


    Thanks for the information.  Can I ask then, does the tool information
    capture the version of the tool aswell - is it just a free-text
    attribute?  
    
    Reason: The responsibiility to produce the count in the first instance
    is the responsibility of the content parser.  As the parser may be
    revised X times to address defects, add functionality etc, can we look
    at a standardised way of specifying the tool/parser and version?
    
    
    Is this XLIFF group, or some subcommitte looking at a tools registry,
    i.e., agreed and standard names for the tools out there or some form of
    guidelines for creating these Tool names?  
    
    Finally, is there a plan to integrate/leverage the LISA findings on this
    topic?
    
    
    Steve.
    
    
    S  t  e  p  h  e  n     H  o  l  m  e  s
    Localisation Development Manager 
    International Product Development
    
    Voice:  +353 (1) 241 5732
    Fax:     +353 (1) 241 5749
    
    Novell, Inc., THE leading provider of Net business solutions
    http://www.novell.com
    >>> John Reid <JREID@novell.com> 04/12/02 19:05 PM >>>
    On Point 1: 
    [Alt-jr1] The purpose for including the tool as an attribute of the
    <count-group> is so that Tool Y will know that the counts it is about to
    use/update are not theirs. Thus, Tool Y may want to produce its own.
    However, if Tool Y is compatable with Tool X, then it can use Tool X's
    counts. Meanwhile, Tool X can find its own counts and update,
    accordingly. 
    
    <count-group tool="Tool X" name="example">
    <count count-type="untranslated">132</count>
    </count-group>
    
    This does become complicated, though, when Tool Z is used. Tool Z may
    have a compatibility issue with Tool Y but not ToolX. If Tool Y updated
    Tool X's counts, Tool Z may use those inaccurately. 
    
    [Alt-jr2] There is another solution to this: We already have a <phase>
    element that stores the tool used in that phase. The phase-name
    attribute could be added to <count>. Thus, when that count was produced
    and by what, could be ascertained by any subsequent tool and a
    determination of if to use the count could be made.
    
    <phase-group>
    <phase phase-name="create" process-name="Translation" tool="Tool X"
    date="2002-04-10T09:41:02Z"/>
    </phase-group>
    ..
    <count-group name="example">
    <count phase-name="create" count-type="untranslated">132</count>
    </count-group>
    
    Then again, with either method, a tool has to update the attribute of a
    count or count-group element and historical data is lost. Thus, adding
    the phase-name or the tool attribute methods have essentially the same
    consequence: Tool Z knows which tool last touched the named count. Using
    a tool attribute has the advantage of being in the scope of the current
    node. The phase-name has the advantage of carrying additional
    information such as date. 
    
    [Alt-jr3] Another alternative is to add a new element to <count-group>,
    such as <update>, that has attributes of tool and date. Thus, multiple
    updates could be recorded for a <count-group>. This would need to be at
    the <count-group> level since we do want to keep the contents of <count>
    to the actual count. 
    
    <count-group name="example">
    <update tool="Tool X" date="2002-04-10T09:41:02Z"/>
    <count phase-name="create" count-type="untranslated">132</count>
    </count-group>
    
    This solution has the disadvantage that it implies an update to all the
    counts within a <count-group> of which there may be many and only one
    updated. This is also a weakness for adding the tool attribute to
    <count-group>.
    
    Alt-jr2 can be used to keep historical data since ther is no
    restriction on the number of counts that can be stored within the
    <count-group>. Thus, Tool X can supply a count in phase 1, 
    
    <phase-group>
    <phase phase-name="create" process-name="Translation" tool="Tool X"
    date="2002-04-10T09:41:02Z"/>
    </phase-group>
    ..
    <count-group name="example">
    <count phase-name="create" count-type="untranslated">132</count>
    </count-group>
    
    Tool Y can add an update to it in phase 2, 
    
    <phase-group>
    <phase phase-name="create" process-name="Translation" tool="Tool X"
    date="2002-04-10T09:41:02Z"/>
    <phase phase-name="translate" process-name="Translation" tool="Tool Y"
    date="2002-04-11T11:43:04Z"/>
    </phase-group>
    ..
    <count-group name="example">
    <count phase-name="create" count-type="untranslated">132</count>
    <count phase-name="translate" count-type="untranslated">43</count>
    </count-group>
    
    and Tool Z can update Tool X's count and ignore Tool Z's in phase 3. 
    
    <phase-group>
    <phase phase-name="create" process-name="Translation" tool="Tool X"
    date="2002-04-10T09:41:02Z"/>
    <phase phase-name="translate" process-name="Translation" tool="Tool Y"
    date="2002-04-11T10:42:03Z"/>
    <phase phase-name="review" process-name="Translation" tool="Tool Z"
    date="2002-04-12T11:43:04Z"/>
    </phase-group>
    ..
    <count-group name="example">
    <count phase-name="create" count-type="untranslated">132</count>
    <count phase-name="translate" count-type="untranslated">43</count>
    <count phase-name="review" count-type="untranslated">56</count>
    </count-group>
    
    
    Thoughts?
    
    cheers,
    john
    
    >>> Stephen Holmes <sholmes@novell.com> 4/11/02 4:44:58 PM >>>
    On point 1, I'd just make the comment that the value of adding the
    tool
    that created the wordcount as an attribute is of relatively little use
    if you take a situation where, for example, "Tool X" generates the
    data,
    but "Tool Y" reads it for processing and has different ideas about
    what
    consitutes a word count.
    
    It's an age old problem in localisation - "Who has the correct word
    count?".  As tools may be completely proprietary, even if based on
    XLIFF
    containers, I see no reason in complicating the attribute qualifiers. 
    This may become the topic of a subcommitte...
    
    On point 3 - bear in mind that localisatin/language tools that aspire
    to
    be network-based will find base64 encoded content to be monumentally
    large to transfer.  Europe, remember, is still predominantly 56K and
    we
    all remember the hassle involved in FedEx'ing CD's to China - business
    reality supercedes specification.
    
    Cheers
    Steve.
    
    
    
    S  t  e  p  h  e  n     H  o  l  m  e  s
    Localisation Development Manager 
    International Product Development
    
    Voice:  +353 (1) 241 5732
    Fax:     +353 (1) 241 5749
    
    Novell, Inc., THE leading provider of Net business solutions
    http://www.novell.com 
    >>> John Reid <JREID@novell.com> 04/11/02 19:02 PM >>>
    Hi All,
    
    My comments follow Mark's, between <jr>...</jr> tags. 
    
    >>> Mark Levins <mark_levins@ie.ibm.com> 4/5/02 5:59:53 AM >>>
    
    1. <note> as a child of <count>
    Currently the <count> element is very ambiguous, a note as a child
    element 
    could be used to indicate what was being counted, what was considered
    a
    
    word etc.
    
    <jr>The <count-group> and <count> elements can be very problematic. A
    <note> element within the <count> element may help in the customized
    support required by these elements but that is a human readable
    approach
    and probably would need to be defined even more to be truly useful. A
    stronger definition of the count element may do more for us. 
    <count> has the 'unit' attribute which has recommended values of word,
    page, trans-unit, bin-unit, and item. The latter three are defined
    according to elements within the spec but the former two must be
    defined
    by the tool creating the count. I suggest that we include the tool as
    an
    attribute to the count-group. This would be the same attribute used in
    <file>, <phase>, and <alt-trans>. Further refinement of the 'unit'
    attribute may alo be necessary.</jr>
    
    
    2. The <count-group>, <prop-group> and <context-group> elements can be
    
    used within a <group> without any other relevant child elements
    The 1.0 specification allows that a <group> element can contain (for 
    example) a <count-group> without containing anything to count. I think
    the 
    <group> element should be changed to contain at least one of <group>, 
    <trans-unit> or <bin-unit>.
    
    <jr>Shouldn't this requirement be placed on the <body> also?</jr>
    
    
    3. Binary elements & <internal-file>
    This is kind of a big one. At the moment the specification does not
    define 
    the form of the content of the <internal-file> element (although there
    is 
    an optional 'form' attribute). The problem is see with this is that
    the
    
    specification allows users place binary data directly as content -
    this
    
    binary content may contain the reserved XML characters < > etc which
    will 
    cause parsers to choke.
    The CDATA section approach is also not good enough to provide a
    solution.
    My suggestion is that the content of the <internal-file> be restricted
    to 
    Base64 or at least stated so.
    Also, the description in the spec for the <internal-file> element
    reads
    
    "The <internal-file> element will contain the data for the skeleton
    file." 
    which is technically wrong, it may also contain data for an
    <bin-source> 
    or <bin-target> element.
    
    <jr>How does CDATA fail this purpose? I wouldn't want to restrict this
    to just Base64; thus, requiring a conversion for both the producer and
    any subsequent processor that may be able to handle the original
    format
    without a problem. Additionally, wouldn't we need an attribute such as
    'original-format' if we forced your conversion?</jr>
    
    
    4. mime-type attribute of <bin-source>
    How come this attribute is omitted from the <bin-source> element? Note
    
    that it is an attribute of <bin-target>
    
    <jr>We generally put attributes for <source> and <bin-source> in the
    parent, <trans-unt> and <bin-unit>, respectively. The 'mime-type'
    attribute of the target allows a different mime-type for the target in
    cases where it differs from that specified from the <bin-unit>'s.
    Otherwise, the mime-type of the target is unnecessary.</jr>
    
    Cheers,
    john
    
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