Foss Localization In Malaysia

Free and Open Source Software Conference 2003 26-27 Ogos 2003 Sheraton Hotel,Subang,Selangor “Open Source Software Localization Project” Presenter: Muhammad Najmi Ahmad Zabidi International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

Translation and Localization Extracts from Tesaurus Melayu Moden (Malay Modern Thesaurus) : translate: define translation:para phrase, modification, summary Essence from Oxford Advance Learner Dictionary (OALD): local: belonging to particular place or are locale: noun (formal or technical) where something happens

Internationalization -i18n Technically, internationalization being done as: -to make software can be loaded to various languages and character formats -the most popular and yet have many support is by using gettext which use POT (Portable Object Template), PO (Portable Object) and MO (Machine Object) format

This process take into account: -transliteration : e.g, tools that enable conversion from Jawi(Arabic letters too) to Roman letters -collation :e.g, in Spanish 'CH' character is between C and D -Complex Text Layout (CTL) : such in Arabic/Jawi, in which the character can be as single, at the end or first . -BiDi :Bi-directional texts, such for Arabic, which the numbering scheme are from left to right, but for text, it's right to left. -seperating strings in softwares, as to make it available in PO or TSV format,etc.

Project Modus Operand Using special softwares: poedit,kbabel,gnometranslator ➔Any text editor: notepad,wordpad,vi,emacs,nano,pico etc ➔PO and POT are the most popular and many softwares support. ➔UTF-8, encoding which supports Roman and non Roman letters such for Thai, Arabic, Japanese etc. ➔code for Malay language in Malaysia: ms_MY ➔

ISO 369 ms=Malay ISO 3166 MY=Malaysia

Objectives and Motivations Be proud and love of the language ➔Social interaction ➔Education – chances for using softwares, which not necessarily built on English language ➔Learn new technology- software development, open source softwares hot news. ➔

L10n projects progress in Malaysia Gabai Project Localization- Gnome Coordinator/Moderator/Translator- Hasbullah bin Pit http://gabai.sf.net Meksom Project Localization- Mozilla browser Translator-Hasbullah bin Pit http://ikhlas.com/meksom/ Singa Emas Project Localization- Open Office Coordinator/Moderator/Translator- Bustamam Harun and translation team http://oo-l10n.my.sf.net

Munsyi Project Localization: GNU softwares Coordinator/Moderator/Translator- Sharuzzaman Ahmat Raslan and translation team http://munsyi.sf.net Kedidi Emas Project Localization- KDE Coordinator/Moderator/Translator- Muhammad Najmi Ahmad Zabidi and translation team http://kde-ms.sf.net Mandrake Linux in Malay Localization- Mandrake Linux Coordinator/Moderator/Translator- Sharuzzaman Ahmat Raslan, Yuzaimie and translation team http://www.mandrakelinux.com/l10n/ms.php3

Red Hat Linux in Malay Localization- Red Hat Linux Coordinator/Moderator/Translator- Sharuzzaman Ahmat Raslan and Hasbullah bin Pit http://elvis.redhat.com/i18n/index.html PHPmyadmin Localization- PHPmyadmin Translator- Mohammad Shafiq bin Mohd Mustapa Content Management Systems Localization Localization- PHPNuke,PostNuke,PHPbb etc http://mynuke.canggih.net http://myphpbb.com

Popular Sites for OSS Development http://sourceforge.net OR http://sf.net -giving shell access, Concurrent Version System (CVS) and mirror downloads,etc. http://freashmeat.net

Current Miconceptions and Reality

1. Good softwares are in English -not necessarily 2. Software which is in English having international standard -multi language is international standard 3. l10n is LATE - software can be translated before release 4. Localization creates different version - only language package translated

5. English is the only way of knowledge communications - having i18n and l10n, all knowledges flow free -translation using intermediary language will eliminate originality: (Arab-English-Malay) alkhwarizmi-algorithm-algoritma should be; (Arab-Malay) alkhwarizmi=alkhwarizmi 6. Localization is only translation - must have technical knowledge; handling plural forms,XML tags,access key

Another challenge; constructing Pangram in Malay (either in Roman or Arabic letters) - “The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over a Lazy Dog” = ???? 7. Localization Values- for educational purposes,give chance to non English speakers learn 8. Software that use non Roman keyboard such Japan and Arab can be benefited

Problems and Discussions 1. Users don't even know about locale function 2. Some distros not applying locale selection during installation 3. Commercial softwares localization hardly to see. 4. Commitment and discipline of translator. - give right job to the right people; work delegation

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