Re: [libreoffice-l10n] Automatic translations in Weblate

Hi

I ran an empiric test on 3 services, namely Google, ModernMT, and 
LibreTranslate, all for the language I translate, pt-BR. The test was 
run on untranslated Help strings and when weblate translation memory 
gives no match.

I found Google the most accurate. To be honest, it seems Google knows 
the string to translate belongs to an office suite spreadsheet Help 
string...

ModernMT not good enough, some basic context mistakes.

LibreTranslate quite good actually and promising. My remarks on 
LibreTranslate:

* Occasionally, an extra period before a closing tag.

* occasionally, errors on tags: <input>BETA.INV...</input> returned 
<input/>BETA.INV...

* the more tags in the string, the more it get confused and renders poorly.

* Admittedly, some strings in English are poorly written. The software 
does no miracles, poor English returns poor translation.

* Mistakes in gender determination, if the 2 above are true

* Lousy to detect UI terms (Dialog boxes elements) from normal nouns.

* With confusing English, The usual "word-by-word" translation, returns 
English-y Portuguese that demands a manual intervention.

However, I still think translators will benefit to have machine 
translation as suggestion alongside memory translation. If 
LibreTranslate can "learn" form existing translation memory, I'll expect 
improvements.

test strings run on LibreTranslate
* minor intervention
** major intervention

https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=8
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=9 
*
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=10
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=11 
*
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=15
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=16
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=17
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=24 
**
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=25 
*
https://translations.documentfoundation.org/translate/libo_help-master/textscalc01/pt_BR/?q=state%3A%3Ctranslated&offset=26 
*

Regards
Olivier
Em 23/02/2022 11:53, sophi escreveu:
> Hi all,
> Le 23/02/2022 à 15:46, sophi a écrit :
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Following the request made by Stanislav and Olivier on automatic 
> > translation built-in support in Weblate, we discussed the topic 
> > yesterday during our team meeting.
> > Currently we rely on automatic suggestions from Weblate TM and amaGama 
> > TM, meaning there is no AI added.
> > The possibility to include Aws, Microsoft, Google, DeepL, Baidu and 
> > more is already there in Weblate, see:
> > https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/admin/machine.html
> >
> > Doing some research on the different translators available, I've seen 
> > some are really high in costs and/or do not cover a large range of 
> > languages. Traductor requests to be added in credits, I don't know for 
> > others.
> >
> > Yesterday, Olivier proposed Matecat (https://www.matecat.com/) which 
> > is an open source project. He is using it with the Brazilian community 
> > and it gives them very good results. From what I've tested, it 
> > supports a large range of languages, can be used locally. However not 
> > relevant here, I found their support for a large type of file formats 
> > very interesting too.
> >
> > Could you give a test to Matecat and let me know:
>
> So it seems following Ilmari's researches that my request to test 
> Matecat is irrelevant. I'm copying his mail in the other thread here:
> -----------------------------------------
>
> I looked more deeply into Matecat now - I never before managed to find 
> information about the way it uses machine translation. It looks like 
> Matecat itself will not give us any benefits. See these resources:
>
> https://guides.matecat.com/my
>
> "By default, we provide Google Translate API (we pay for it and offer it 
> for free to Matecat users). If for any reason the Google Translate API 
> is not available, we automatically switch to the Microsoft Bing API."
>
> https://guides.matecat.com/machine-translation-engines
>
> It looks like ModernMT is the system that is associated with Matecat 
> creators:
> https://guides.matecat.com/modernmt-mmt-plug-in
>
> It is open source, even though it has a higher quality version for 
> enterprises:
> https://github.com/modernmt/modernmt
>
> Weblate does support it, also with a self-hosted version:
> https://github.com/WeblateOrg/weblate/blob/main/weblate/machinery/modernmt.py 
>
> https://github.com/WeblateOrg/weblate/issues/1627#issuecomment-657171205
>
> However, Weblate also supports LibreTranslate, which uses OpenNMT at its 
> core:
> https://github.com/WeblateOrg/weblate/blob/main/weblate/machinery/libretranslate.py 
>
> https://libretranslate.com/
> https://github.com/LibreTranslate/LibreTranslate
> https://github.com/argosopentech/argos-translate
> https://opennmt.net/
>
> Could you please also evaluate LibreTranslate in addition to ModernMT?
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks a lot Ilmari for your feedback. Please follow his request to 
> evaluate LibreTranslate.
>
> Cheers
> Sophie

--
Olivier Hallot
LibreOffice Documentation Coordinator
Rio de Janeiro - Brasil - Local Time: UTC-03:00
LibreOffice – free and open source office suite: https://www.libreoffice.org
Respects your privacy, and gives you back control over your data
http://tdf.io/joinus

--
To unsubscribe e-mail to: l10n+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/l10n/
Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy