🚀 go-pugleaf

Here are the consolidated responses to the original question from
Francis Ng (francisn@wal.hp.com):

> A major task in the software localization process is the translation of
> texts and documentations from one langauge to another; are
> there translation softwares available in the market?  Does anyone has
> experience using one for their localizations instead of (or in additional to)
> a human translator?
>
> I know there is one called LogoVista that runs on the MacIntosh for
> English->Japanese translation. I have seen a demo but don't know
> its overall performance.
>
> I appreciate any information on tools that can translate English to
> the major languages:
> Spanish,
> French,
> German,
> Dutch,
> Chinese,
> Korean,
> Japanese,
> Arabic,
> Hebrew,
> Swedish,
> Denish,
> Russian,
> Thai, ......, etc.


Jeff
INSOFT-L List Manager

*========================================================================*
 Jeff Bowyer                         EMail:
 Computing Center		     jbowyer@cis.vutbr.cz
 Technical University of Brno
 Udolni 19, 602 00 BRNO
 Czech Republic
*========================================================================*


Sender: Chris L. Erickson <cle@cpu.us.dynix.com>

Our software is available in 9 languages.  We have tried several
translation packages for both French and Spanish, but have not been
satisfied with the result.  Everyone who saw the translations said that
they were quite close, but there were a few problems that made the
translations unusable:

1) Our software vocabulary is quite specific, and is not included in any
package.  We had to translate the terms anyway.

2) Our translators took more time to review existing computer translations
than to translate the document themselves.

3) Sometimes who did the translation is more important to the client than
what the translation is like.  We had one experience where we finished the
manual, and since it wasn't done IN their country, it wasn't acceptable
(even though it was a 'native speaker').

For the time being, we are going back to manual translation, which takes
a long time and costs a lot of money.  We have done a few things which
will reduce the time and cost.  The most important is that we have asked
our documentation department to provide us with a more concise manual set.
The second item is in our software, and that is to create a phrase and
word authority file/glossary with our newest release.  We are still doing
the translation and hope to find that it is easier.


Sender: John OBrien <RAID7@world.std.com>
        Storage Computer Corp.

I would suggest that you give Mike Brazao here at Storage Computer Corp.
(Tel. 603-880-3005).  Besides specializing in RAIDs for large data bases,
he is the former Wang Director of Internationalization and very familiar
with translation software.


Sender: Jochen Ruhland (jochenr@neuro.informatik.uni-kassel.de)
        FG Neuronale Netzwerke / Uni Kassel

As far as I can remember there is a program called METAL or METALL,
I think from SIEMENS/NIXDORF, which is designed to translate amnuals and
other technical documents from English to German.


Sender: "Mendez Translation S.A" <@mcimail.com:BXL/MENDBXL/BG@Mendez_Translations_S+pA+p>
        Brussels, Belgium

At the company where I work (Mendez Translations in Brussels, Belgium) we do
prefer not to use automatic translation systems, but we have preferred
working with a translation memory in stead. I believe this technology is a
lot more suited to modern business needs. As you all know, a lot of software
sees several releases, with an often largely identical documentation. Also,
 online  help texts are increasingly simply (adapted) parts of the printed
documentation.
Using a Translation Memory data base you can do away with all these
redundancies. It also allows you to integrate terminology data bases, thus
insuring consistency.
We (Mendez) have developped our own set of tools.We've been using it for
quite a while now, and we hope to see 2.0 any day now. On the market there
are now products like Translation Manager/2 by IBM or Translation Workbench
II by Trados. Does anybody out there has any experience with these ?


Sender: Tony Roder <@earn.cvut.cz:TONY@SLACVM.bitnet>

For starters, have a look at the January 93 issue of BYTE magazine; it
carries several articles on the subject and can serve as a good introduction.


Sender: Zhang Xiao Zhong (zhangxz@iss.nus.sg)

There are quite a few tool available for translation from English to
Chinese.  the two system I know are both developed by P.R.C.  One is
called Transtar and the other is called GLMT.  Our institute has also
developed an E-C translation system but is only for in-house translation