l10n process, en_US version, Help files

Hi all,

This mail is posted to the dev list and the l10n list, please follow up
on the l10n list.

I would like to open a discussion on the l10n workflow, the quality of
the en_US version and the Help files. All is linked and I would like to
discuss how we can improve the process here. I'm sure that having a
better understanding between the l10n process and the dev process should
help us to improve things :) So here is a proposal, it's a bit long,
sorry for that.

*Before updating Pootle:
- it's important for l10n team to know the approx load of work that will
be needed to achieve the whole work. Time between beta1 and rc1 is short
and that will help to better organize this time between translation and
proof reading.
- depending also on the type of changes, we could use different tools to
optimize the work.

*When the l10n start:
- we need a continuous communication and a planing of the updates made
in Pootle, those translating off line are always frightened to lose
something in the run.
- it's exhausting when you think you are over and to see a new bunch of
words coming. Knowing it in advance help to manage the time too

*After RC1 and l10n integration
- we need to know when integration is made after our fixes, there is
currently no communication on this

==> for these three items, I have asked today to Andras and Christian
how we can put that in place and where I can help them to do so, knowing
also that Christian is managing this part almost alone now.

*About the en_US overall quality
- the process to rely on the l10n team to fix the en_US version is ok,
even if it gives us extra work to understand what is meant before we
realized it's a mistake. So it's also error prone for all the translations.
- but that doesn't solve the several typos that already exist and that
are overlooked by the l10n team (e.g in the Character > Font Effect
dialog, there is Overline _c_olor and Underline _C_olor and this is the
same for several dialogs)
- that doesn't solve also the lack of universal vocabulary used in
several dialogs (e.g Tab/Pane/Panel/Deck to name the same object or
Graphic/Picture/Image). I've nothing to propose here but to define a
glossary where developers could pick the good word but I'm not sure it
will be used

* About the help files
- I always wonder why there is a Help button on a new dialog when no
help file is appended ;)
- more and more functions are undocumented or their help is obsolete. I
always think that an undocumented function is lost for the user and a
sad thing for a developer because his function will not be used as expected.
May be, but I don't know how heavy it would be for developers, the
solution would be to open an issue with a special tag like NF for each
new feature, with three lines about what the feature is supposed to
do. Searching on BZ with this special tag would allow to involve more
people in the loop to test it and document it.

Thanks for reading :)
Cheers
Sophie