[work in progress] Translating the Wiki to french

[Natha]

I really like what Rumble (and other contributors ?) have done with the MapTool wiki at
http://lmwcs.com/rptools/wiki/Main_Page

And I would like to contribute by translating it (gradually) into french, starting with the beginner/basic stuff.
I know a bunch of D&D players from the french D&D forum that are interested in VTT and MapTool in particular (as some of us have been promoting it) but they are reluctant to try right now. They feel that MT is "hard to get" (EDIT : not "hardcore" as I originally wrote ) and the lack of french documentation only reinforce that feeling.

So, my point is : is it possible to host on the same site a french version that I (and other contributors maybe) could have access to in editing mode ? (BTW, is it part of rptools sites or is it a contributor's hosting ?)
If not, I have a website myself and could host it.

[Rumble]

It's not just me! zEal is a major editor and contributor and wiki guru. Craig is the one who started it, and got most of the functions up there IIRC. I just write the tutorial parts.

Anyway, it is a "fan site," effectively - it's not part of the RPTools official site. As for hosting a clone of it for french translation, I have no idea how that would work, but Craig or zEal might have some ideas.

[zEal]

Yep, MediaWiki(what the RPTools wiki is running) handles localization very well. I'll need to make a few templates to handle it smoothly, but the basic concept goes like this:

If you wanted to translate Rumble's Introduction to Mapping you take note of its address, which is http : //lmwcs.com/rptools/wiki/Introduction_to_Mapping (spaces to prevent the forum from truncating the address)

Then you goto the same address, with a / and a language code at the end, so using the same example it would be http : //lmwcs.com/rptools/wiki/Introduction_to_Mapping/fr (yes, lowercase)

After you edit that page to include the translation(you might want to copy the source from the English translation to get you started) users with their language set to French should automatically be redirected there when they visit the English translation. At least I'm fairly certain they're automatically redirected, I'll have to double check that. Either way, we'll also be able to include a template at the bottom of each translated page that lists the various translations; much like they do on Wikipedia.

Hope that helps, let me know if I wasn't clear enough on anything.

[Natha]

Cristal clear, thanks guys.

[Craig]

Let me know if there are any extensions that need to be added that can make things easier/better.

[Brigand]

I find it hilarious that people think something is "hardcore" because it lacks translations into other languages.

[zEal]

Let me know if there are any extensions that need to be added that can make things easier/better.

It's pretty straight forward to make a template like you can find on Editor:Translation(still in a rough form) that can be added to translated pages, and once it's added it automatically updates for each /langcode translation the page has.

Polyglot is an experimental redirect to the /langcode subpage based on the user's language. I'm iffy about experimental extensions, but this one has been around since MediaWiki 1.10 /shrug

LanguageSelector is supposed to work well with Polyglot and try to automatically determine a visitor's language and/or offer them a language selector.

Multilang provides "in-line" translations, would would be handy for translating templates without having to create one for each language. This one is also supposed to play well with the other two.

[Azhrei]

Man, this is so awesome! How many other gaming/rpg tools do you know of that have their docs available in multiple languages?

Of course, we still need some kind of "official" doc for 1.3, but we'll get there...

[Natha]

Well, I just tried and translated the first 2 sections of Introduction to mapping and it's working well :
http://lmwcs.com/rptools/wiki/Introduct ... Mapping/fr

As for :

I find it hilarious that people think something is "hardcore" because it lacks translations into other languages.

I'm not sure I understand what you're meaning.
MapTool seems to be "hard to get" (or start) for some people, even people whose mothertongue is english. Especially if they are non geeky/tech people for starters.
Add to that situation a foreign language : it's getting even harder to get a grip on the software. Some won't even try.
But ... perhaps the word "hardcore" is not suited in this situation (my english has its moments of ... weirdness and gaps)

[Rumble]

"Hardcore" is often used in English slang to mean "awesome" or "impressive" or something like that (in other words, used as a complimentary term at someone's or something's prowess).

So basically, it came across as sounding like your friends were saying "MapTool is so awesome and cool it only supports one language!!"

[Natha]

"Hardcore" is often used in English slang to mean "awesome" or "impressive" or something like that (in other words, used as a complimentary term at someone's or something's prowess).

So basically, it came across as sounding like your friends were saying "MapTool is so awesome and cool it only supports one language!!"

Oh my !

That's absolutely the opposite of what I meant !

(though I just had a good laugh)

[zEal]

/shrug I interpreted 'hardcore' to mean 'challenging' or 'difficult' or 'extreme', although I have heard it used in the context that Rumble described.

[Natha]

/shrug I interpreted 'hardcore' to mean 'challenging' or 'difficult' or 'extreme'

That was it.
I edited the first post though, to avoid confusion.

[zEal]

Natha, Craig has those extensions up and running on the wiki, I was wondering if you could do us a favor. Log out of the wiki and see if you're automatically redirected to your translation when you visit the original English version.

The dropdown one of those extensions adds is rather obtrusive, so if the autodetect works I'm going to see about having Craig set it not to show.

[Natha]

Ok I did try.

The good news is : it's working with IE (6). It auto detects french, all the basic navigation is in french (like for creating a user account, search, home page etc.) and when I go the page I've started to modify, the URL is still http://lmwcs.com/rptools/wiki/Introduction_to_Mapping but it shows the content of http://lmwcs.com/rptools/wiki/Introduct ... Mapping/fr (cool !).

The bad news is : autodetect doesn't seem to work with Firefox 3.x. (English is shown selected in the dropdown list).
But once i've choosen French in the dropdown and start navigating, it's ok.

(EDIT : PS : french Windows XP, Firefox and IE in French etc ...)