Final Revised XLIFF TC Charter

["Tony Jewtushenko" <tony.jewtushenko@productinnovator.com>]

Folks –

 

Below is the final version of the Charter that we voted to accept in today’s meeting, with references to ITS & IGNITE removed.

 

Regards,

Tony

 

----SNIP---

XML Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF)

 

Statement of Purpose

 

The purpose of the OASIS XLIFF TC is to define, through extensible XML

vocabularies, and promote the adoption of, a specification for the

interchange of localisable software and document based objects and

related metadata. To date, the committee has published two

specifications - XLIFF 1.0 and XLIFF 1.1 - that define how to mark up

and capture localisable data that will interoperate with different

processes or phases without loss of information. The specifications are

tool-neutral, support the entire localization process, and support

common software and document data formats and mark-up languages. The

specifications provide an extensibility mechanism to allow the

development of tools compatible with an implementer's data formats and

workflow requirements.  The extensibility mechanism provides controlled

inclusion of information not defined in the specification.

 

The state of software and documentation localisation before XLIFF was

that a software or documentation provider delivered their localisable

resources to a localisation service provider in a number of disparate

file formats. Once software providers and technical communicators

commenced implementing XLIFF, the task of interchanging localisation

data was simplified. Using proprietary and/or non-standard resource

formats force either the source provider or the localisation service

provider to implement costly and inefficient pre-processing of

localisable content. For publishers with many proprietary or

non-standard formats, this requirement becomes a major hurdle when

attempting to localise their software. For software developers and

technical communicators employing enterprise localisation tools and

processes, XLIFF defines a standard but extensible vocabulary that

captures relevant metadata for any point in the lifecycle which can be

exchanged between a variety of commercial and open-source tools.

 

The first phase, completed 31 October 2003, created a 1.1 version committee

specification that concentrated on software UI resource file localisable

data requirements. The next phase consists of promoting the adoption of

XLIFF throughout the industry through additional collateral and

specifications, continuing to advance the committee specification

towards an official OASIS standard, and revising the XLIFF spec to 1.2

version to support document based content segmentation and alignment

requirements. To encourage adoption of XLIFF, the TC will define and publish

implementation guides for the most commonly used resource formats (HTML,

Window Resources, Java Resource Bundles, and gettext PO Files).

 

XLIFF TC work and deliverables adhere to OASIS IPR policy.

 

List of Deliverables

 

- XLIFF 1.2 Specification and XSD to support Segmentation & Alignment - December 2005

- XLIFF 1.2 XHTML/HTML Representation Guides - December 2005

- XLIFF 1.2 Java Resource Bundle Representation Guide - January 2006

- XLIFF 1.2 Windows Resources Representation Guide - January 2006

- XLIFF 1.2 PO File Representation Guide - December 2005

- XLIFF 1.2 XML Representation guide - January 2006

 

- Submit XLIFF 1.2 for public review and consideration as OASIS Standard - February 2006

 

In addition, the XLIFF TC will endeavour to deliver the following as

time and resources permit:

 

- XLIFF 1.2 ResX Representation Guide

 

----SNIP---

 

Tony Jewtushenko

Director- R&D - Product Innovator Ltd. (Ireland)

P: +353.1.8875183; M: +353.87.2479057; W: www.productinnovator.com