Integrate screenshots into Rosetta (Launchpad Translations)

[Geza Kovacs]

I've developed a system for providing a screenshot to translators to illustrate the context in which a message is used in the program, and wanted to help integrate it into Launchpad if there was any interest in such a feature. Basically, the way it would work is, the developer can upload some screenshots in addition to the message template file, and they would automatically be matched to messages, so that when the translator is translating a message, a screenshot will be shown. If interested in the details, I've published a paper on it in CHI 2012 ( http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/other-pubs/chi2012-screenshots-for-translation-context.pdf )

In terms of code, the prototype implementation I used for the paper, which works with gettext message files, is MIT-licensed, and is written in Java, is at https://github.com/gkovacs/textmatch . I realize Java isn't very popular in the FOSS world, so I can clean it up and rewrite it into C and write documentation if needed. I was primarily interested if there was any interest in integrating such a feature into Launchpad, and if yes, how I could help do so.

[Curtis Hovey (sinzui)]

Hi Geza.

We currently do not want to add additional maintenance to Launchpad itself. We prefer new features to be built as services that Lp can exchange data with. Neither Java or C are ideal, Lp is written in Python like most Canonical hosted applications -- The service must be written in a language that any of the Lp staff confidently work with.

[Geza Kovacs (gezakovacs)]

Certainly, I can rewrite the software as a service in Python if that's more convenient. Before embarking on the work, however, I wish to be confident that there's sufficient interest in the feature that it would be accepted into Launchpad. Also, I'd like some specifics on the particular interface that would be desired to the service, to make sure I'm implementing the right thing.

[Yaron (sh-yaron)]

Any progress?

It's been over 8 years, the UI hasn't changed, there are no suggestions, no screenshots for context, no glossary, no option to suggest instead of saving, no git integration, no list to see other languages for reference, no builtin Wikipedia and context search, no TM, no direct code linking to look at the source code, many repeating errors…

We're falling behind here, most modern translation platforms are way ahead of this one, it's pretty frustrating, if you're not going to invest any effort on this platform at least replace it with Weblate or any other modern open source localization system, it's really slowing us down.