What is XLIFF for?

Here I am, patting myself on the back for finishing the Keynote Address a week before the XLIFF Symposium. I'm going to talk about “XLIFF's Place in the Community.” And I realized that my talk is based 100% on the limits of my experience (which might be fine - I think the talk is okay with its mixture of entertainment and provocative hypotheses).

But it got me to wondering, what are the things XLIFF is for that maybe I have not thought of?

My limited experience has exposed me to two scenarios:

1 - For exchanging translation jobs from customer to LSP: XLIFF is an XML Localization Interchange File Format that I, as a translation customer, convert my various XML formats into. I then present my XLIFF files to my LSP (no need for them to learn my formats, or worry about DTP, etc). They translate the files. I convert the translated files back into their original format. And the new files continue on the workflow as translated assets.

2 - For a native format for translation tools: XLIFF is an XML Localization Interchange File Format that translation tools (like Trados, Swordfish, XTM, and many others (that are every bit as important, but just escape my thinking at the moment)) open and process happily, efficiently, and loss-less-ly.

What are some of the other scenarios? Forgive me if I'm showing my naiveté.

Thanks,

Bryan

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