Re: [libreoffice-l10n] Translating Most annoying bugs of 3.6.0

Dear Sophie,

Sadly, the L10n community is a very poor place to recruit QA testing.
Why?  Because just as the new features are rolling in that need
testing (on a tight release schedule), the new strings are rolling in
that need L10n.  There are only so many hours available between
feature freeze/string freeze and release.

That is not to say that all community members do not bear some
responsibility for quality, just that the localizer's busiest period
exactly coincides with the critical testing period towards the end of
a release cycle.

The bug in question (spell-checking) is not even directly a L10n
related bug, but it *is* an issue that is very near and dear to the
hearts of localizers, especially those engaged in localizing word
processing tools.  Many have spent countless hours, above and beyond
UI L10n, developing word lists and working to enhance their native
language spell-checking capabilities and as noted, many are
more-or-less "teams" of one.  This may account for some of the passion
evoked.

Automation of testing is an excellent idea, collaborators/allies in
that area may often found among those people who have a focus on
accessibility (a11y), the reason for this is that the alternate
input/output mechanisms introduced for the purpose of a11y are exactly
the sorts of hooks that robotic scripts need to do automated testing.
Personally, I've always viewed a11y as another form of i18n/L10n, but
there is often a small group in any project that is most passionate
about a11y issues and they are very valuable contributors indeed.

I agree with your comments that there should not be an "us" versus
"them" distinction within a project.  The burden for keeping clear
communications open rests equally on all, but it is not necessarily
all that common for localizers to attend release team meetings or bug
triage sessions as they are focused on other areas.  As the
Translation Team Coordinator of Sugar Labs, I try to attend as many of
those as possible to speak out on behalf of i18n/L10n concerns.  It is
not unreasonable for individual language L10n contributors to expect
that the global level i18n/L10n team coordinators are acting in a
similar way to speak on behalf of the entire L10n community and the
issues that matter to them (like spell-checking and dictionary
support).  The "us" versus "them" dynamic unfortunately arises when
localizers do not feel that developers or the release team decision
makers have adequately taken the needs of the international community
into account.

cjl

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