slide to unlockWojciech Froelich

Argos Translations

Mobile operating systems iOS Android Windows Phone BlackBerry

There is an app for that Inexpensive development tools Rapid development Easy access to application markets

Developers encouraged to translate/localize

iPhone App Development (The Missing Manual series)› Don’t use automated tools or get your second cousin’s

best friend who spent 6 months overseas to do the translation. For many users, a bad localization is harder to use than the original English.

easy access to translation providers (Android example)

Translation formats iOS

› .strings Android

› strings.xml most of the tools support them, you can still use

Okapi Rainbow

The usual cycle, development

Translate

Compile

Test

Release

Develop

The usual cycle, bug

Report/Fix

Re-testClose

Find

Continuous development agile development replaced waterfall model developers work in short iterations focus on specific features challenges for localization

The story 2 mobile apps to report gym activities

› iOS› Android

linked to user account gamification, achievements 10 target languages, including Russian, Korean,

Japanese

Before we even started translation

i18n (aka internationalization) audit› pseudolocalization› test cycle with pseudolocalized resources› direct contact with developers

fixed several problems before the translations started

Challenges for translators placeholders date format patterns limited space The King (not Elvis)

Challenges for testing hardware testing scenarios and scripts

Interesting problems Korean

› different translation for “Weight” (body weight vs. lifted weight)

plurals› iOS – additional libraries required› Android – native support

Plurals – Android Syntax <plurals        name="plural_name">        <item            quantity=["zero" | "one" | "two" | "few" | "many" | "other"]            >text_string</item>    </plurals>

Plurals – Android zero When the language requires special treatment of the number 0 (as in

Arabic). one When the language requires special treatment of numbers like one (as

with the number 1 in English and most other languages; in Russian, any number ending in 1 but not ending in 11 is in this class).

two When the language requires special treatment of numbers like two (as with 2 in Welsh, or 102 in Slovenian).

few When the language requires special treatment of "small" numbers (as with 2, 3, and 4 in Czech; or numbers ending 2, 3, or 4 but not 12, 13, or 14 in Polish).

many When the language requires special treatment of "large" numbers (as with numbers ending 11-99 in Maltese).

other When the language does not require special treatment of the given quantity (as with all numbers in Chinese, or 42 in English).

Q & A