RE: [xliff-comment] using xliff to translate html

["Brian Stell" <brianstell00@aol.com>]

Yves,

Yves Savourel wrote:
 > ...
 > Just to add more on the discussion, I've attached is an
 > example of HTML extracted to XLIFF:
 >
 > - TestPage.htm is the original file.
 > - TestPage.xlf is the XLIFF extraction.

Thank you for the examples.

If you don't mind I'd like to discuss a couple of items.

Readability of the inline marked up text
========================================
The inline markup seems to add a lot of bulk to the text.
Consider this paragraph from TestPage.htm:

     <p>Some text in <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>, <b><i> bold
     and italic</i></b>, and a <a href="#topoffile">link</a>.</p>

The inline marked up text in TestPage.htm becomes(1):

     <source xml:lang='en'>Some text in <bpt id='1'
     ctype='bold'><b></bpt>bold<ept id='1'></b></ept>,
     <bpt id='2' ctype='italic'><i></bpt>italic
     <ept id='2'></i></ept>, <bpt id='3' ctype='bold'><b></bpt>
     <bpt id='4' ctype='italic'><i></bpt> bold and italic
     <ept id='4'></i></ept><ept id='3'></b></ept>, and a
     <bpt id='5' ctype='link'><a href="#topoffile"></bpt>link
     <ept id='5'></a></ept>.</source>

Its my current thinking that the original version is fairly
readable and I'd be comfortable presenting this to a localizer.

I am very concerned that the inline marked up version is a bit
hard to read and I am concerned that it is not appropriate for
a localizer to work with.

It would be possible for a tool to convert the data back to the
more readable form. However, unless this is a requirement of XLIFF I
would expect that we will see at least a generation of tools that
present the inline marked up form directly to the translator.


Using the <g> tag
===============================================
Using the <g> tag this text:

     <p>Some text in <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>, <b><i> bold
     and italic</i></b>, and a <a href="#topoffile">link</a>.</p>

would become (something like) this(2):

     <g xid="g1">Some text in <g xid="g2">bold</g>,
     <g xid="g3">italic</g>, <g xid="g2"><g xid="g3"> bold and
     italic</g></g>, and a  <g xid="g4">link</g>.</g>

     <trans-unit id='g1'>
       <source xml:lang='en'>p</source>
     </trans-unit>
     <trans-unit id='g2'>
       <source xml:lang='en'>b</source>
     </trans-unit>
     <trans-unit id='g3'>
       <source xml:lang='en'>i</source>
     </trans-unit>
     <trans-unit id='g4'>
       <source xml:lang='en'>a href="#topoffile"</source>
     </trans-unit>
     </trans-unit>

I like the <g> tag is a lot less bulky than the <it>,<bpt>,<ept>
tags but then the meaning of the tag is removed away from the
source element.

Notes:
(1) For this discussion let's ignore the bracketing <p> tags.
(2) Yves, perhaps you could show the proper form.

-- 
Brian Stell
AIM: brianstell00
(650) 937-2797