Hi all,
I have been working on a fairly broad review of the Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR) translation of TDE, and after spending some time with the existing catalogs I thought it would be useful to share a few observations and, more importantly, ask about the preferred workflow before I go much further.
My initial goal was simply to review and complete the pt_BR translation, but the work has gradually become more systematic. I have been reviewing the PO files, checking Weblate warnings and consistency issues, comparing questionable strings with their source/templates, and also building the current TDE Git sources so that I can check translations in their actual UI context rather than only looking at the catalogs.
One thing that became apparent is how much history there is in these translations. Some strings have apparently survived from KDE 3.x-era translations, sometimes with terminology or wording that no longer seems appropriate, while other inconsistencies seem to come from later revisions. In a few cases, what initially looked like a translation problem turned out not to be one.
I have also encountered cases where the problem seems to be in the source translation template rather than in pt_BR itself. This includes inconsistencies in POT/PO structure, plural-related issues, unusual source strings or context, and cases where Weblate's validation exposes something that is difficult or impossible to fix correctly only from the translation side.
This raises a question about how you would prefer these cases to be reported. If a problem is clearly in a POT/template or ultimately in the application source, should I open an issue against the corresponding TDE component, report it here first, or use some other workflow? I would like to avoid creating unnecessary issues while still separating actual translation problems from problems that need to be fixed upstream.
I also have a question about reviewed translations.
As I go through pt_BR, there are strings that I can not only translate but also verify in context in a current TDE build. Once such a translation has been reviewed and tested, is there any TDE policy or Weblate mechanism for considering it "reviewed" or "approved"?
I do not mean making a translation immutable — there will obviously always be legitimate reasons to improve or correct it. My concern is avoiding unnecessary changes to translations that have already been carefully reviewed and tested in context. Does TDE make use of Weblate's review/approval features or permissions for this purpose? If not, is there an established convention among translation teams for this?
There is one more part of the translation tree about which I am unsure: the documentation.
I noticed that the DocBook documentation/manual translations do not seem to appear in Weblate, at least not in the same way as the application PO catalogs. I may simply have overlooked the appropriate project or workflow.
What is the recommended way to work on those translations? Are the DocBook/manual translations managed through Weblate somewhere, or should changes to them be prepared directly against the TDE internationalization/translation Git repository and submitted as normal Git changes/pull requests?
I am asking these questions now because I would like the pt_BR review to follow the project's preferred workflow rather than establish my own assumptions about how translations should be maintained.
My intention is ultimately to leave the Brazilian Portuguese translation in a state where it is not only more complete, but also internally consistent and checked against the applications wherever practical. While doing this, I am keeping track of cases that appear to be translation issues separately from those that may originate in templates or source code.
Any guidance on the preferred workflow for these cases would be very welcome.
Thanks, Sebastião Guerra