🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <19930827.052630.232205.NETNEWS@auvm.american.edu>
 "Walter T. de Vries." <WDEVRIES@UNICC.BITNET> writes:
>To: GIS-L
>Subject: GIS & languages
>
>I am trying to find out how the use and success of GIS (software)
>depends on languages. From a purely software point of view there
>is a variety of areas in which translation or adaption of languages
>and/or characters is possible:
>1) Interface
>2) Map characters
>3) Message files
>4) Documentation
>5) Training manuals
>It can however be argued that translation or adaption alone does
>not necessarily mean that the GIS type is just as successful or
>useful. A Francophone GIS could for example be immanently
>different from translated anglosaxon software into French, let
>alone a GIS designed in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arab or
>Hindi (just to mention some of the major languages in the world
>besides English).

Hi Walter,
some thoughts from my point of view:
I'm with SNI in the development of SICAD, the _german_ GIS. We used
to develop first for the german-speaking market, and produce an
international version later. Internationalization means here:
1. Translation of the manuals (english)
2. Translation of the messages (english and other languages)
3. If required, translation of command names.
comments:
1. is quite an obvious thing to do. IMHO, the resulting english manuals
are not always as good as they could be. (Some colleague used the term
"germish" for these translated german-english manuals ...  ;-) ) But
we are getting better on this.
2. is easy, because we use message numbers instead of hard-coded test.
So we just create another text library for each new language.
3. may be useful, because our commands are usually abbreviations of their
functionality description - german, of course. So we create some kind
of look-up-table, where you can map new names to every command.

This scheme has now changed a bit:
the documentation of some packages in SICAD/open (that's the unix version)
is originally written in english, the messages and command names too. The
german translation is following.

So, why is the success of this software so great in the german-speaking
part of the world, and why is it much less everywhere else ?
I can think of 2 reasons:
1. Germans are said to do things their own way (correct, steady, you all
now the terms to be added here). Maybe a german GIS reflects this a bit, and
so german users like it just for this reason. Other people, e.g. from the USA
have a slightly different point of view, and maybe you can see this in
american-made software to. This "cultural difference" may also be seen in
the different marketing strategies and the whole field of service and
support.
2. For software to get real successfull, you nead a "critical mass" of
users. You know how much it helps when you can easily talk about youre
software problems with some guy from next door who knows what you are
talking about. User groups are important ! And the software will normally
be used first in the surroundings where it was developped - this is
not only true for GIS !

These are just some personal thoughts, don't blame my company for it.
Cheers
Wolfgang

__________________________________________________________________________
Wolfgang Jeschke SNI ES GIS 22 Munich - Germany          /All   /  SIEMENS
Smail: Otto-Hahn-Ring 6  D-81730 Muenchen               /these /   =======
Email: W.Jeschke@mch.sni.de                            /words /    NIXDORF
Phone: +49/89/636-42709                               /are   /
Fax:_____________-43939 _____________________________/mine, not their's/__