Consolidated change proposals for alt-trans
Combining suggested changes
from Matthew Lovatt and Magnus Martikainen.
Proposal 1:
Add a type
attribute for the <alt-trans> element.
Details:
It has been assumed that the
<alt-trans> element is intended to contain translations that may be used
to translate the parent target element, either by using the translation as-is,
or by using the suggested translation as the starting point for translation.
Typically <alt-trans>
elements will be generated from translation memory searches, or other fuzzy
match mechanisms.
However, the
<alt-trans> elements may also be of use for tracking previous
translations, recording rejected translations, or may provide reference
translations from related languages or from related translation projects.
A translation tool
/translator needs to be able to identify that certain types of <alt-trans>
elements are for informational purposes only, and may not be used for
translation.
Finally, we require
a mechanism to identify which (if any) <alt-trans> elements were used by
translators during the translation process. Typically, this information is used
to track the efficiency of the <alt-trans> generation process from
fuzzy/machine matching.
The type attribute
is to be optional, and is to have the following values and meanings:
|
Value |
Meaning |
|
proposal (default) |
The <alt-trans>
represents a translation proposal from a translation memory or other
resource. |
|
previous-version |
The <alt-trans>
represents a previous version of the <target> element |
|
rejected |
The <alt-trans>
represents a rejected version of the <target> element. |
|
reference |
The <alt-trans>
represents a translation to be used for reference purposes only, for
example from a related product or a different language |
|
accepted |
The <alt-trans>
represents a proposed translation that was used for the translation of the
trans-unit, possibly modified. |
Normally, a translator
should only use <alt-trans> of type �proposal� or �accepted� when
translating, all other types are �read-only�
Only type �proposal�
<alt-trans> elements may be promoted to �accepted�
Proposal 2:
Deprecate
the use of multiple <target> elements in a single
<alt-trans>.
Details:
Attributes that convey
information about a specific <alt-trans> may need to be introduced on the
<target> element rather than on the <alt-trans>. This causes the
<target> element to have attributes that are used only when it appears
inside an <alt-trans> - not when it appears in a <trans-unit>. That
makes the <target> element unnecessarily complicated and overloaded with
functionality.
Proposal 3:
Deprecate
the restype attribute for the <target> element.
Details:
It should no longer be
needed, as the <target> will always be of the same restype as the
<trans-unit> or <alt-trans> it appears in.
Proposal 4:
Introduce
the phase-name attribute for <alt-trans>.
Details:
The phase-name for an
<alt-trans> with type=previous-version would indicate which <phase>
the change was introduced in. This makes it possible to find out who made the
change, when, and which process the change was introduced in.
Proposal 5:
Introduce a
convention: more recent <alt-trans> elements should appear before older
ones.
Details:
This allows us to determine
the order of changes if multiple previous versions have been introduced. (Even
if the phase-name attribute can be used for this to some extent, sometimes
changes may be introduced without adding a new <phase>. It is also
possible that no phase-name attribute may have been specified for some versions.
Or multiple versions could be introduced for the same phase-name.)