RE: [docbook-apps] UI strings vs manual strings ?

["Jan Tosovsky" <j.tosovsky@email.cz>]

On 05/12/2022 23:05, Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:
> What's the best way in a DocBook centered process to ensure that the 
> list of terms used in a software UI is (semi-automatically?) taken 
> into account in the DocBook sources that describe that software?

In your document you can use <guilabel> and other <gui* related elements
which can indicate the content must match the GUI label. You can then
instruct the localization agency to follow this rule.
But there is no way to avoid human error so this still has to be checked
manually which is inefficient. 

I've seen an interesting approach where any guilabel had a dedicated
attribute storing a termbase ID. While a guilabel value was present, it was
just informative (for the author, to understand the context). The actual
value was taken from the termbase during generating outputs.

So if GUI labels are linked to the same termbase, this system ensures your
document will never diverge. Moreover, it is ensured also to all translated
documents. 

The hardest step is consolidating such a termbase and establishing processes
on DEV and DOC sides so both departments use the termbase as a single source
of truth.

Jan