Topic: How can I help with English (US) copyediting?
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heartsinger Topic Opener
Joined: 2012-08-13, 06:05
Posts: 6  Pry about Widelands Location: West Coast, USA |
Posted at: 2012-08-13, 06:35
The American English version of Widelands desperately needs a copyeditor, and I'd really like to help, but I don't know how to get to the right files to edit. I tried looking at the Translations page on Launchpad, but there's no option for translating into English (US). What do I do? Hi, I'm a writer. 
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Nasenbaer
Joined: 2009-02-21, 18:17
Posts: 826  One Elder of Players Location: Germany |
Posted at: 2012-08-13, 10:09
Hi heartsinger, you are right, there has not been a translation file for american English so far. i am not sure about the correct way to start - i guess normally you select the languages you want to translate to in your launchpad profile. anyways, the easiest way would be to click on the following link ;): https://translations.launchpad.net/widelands/trunk/+lang/en_US its good to know that someone is brave enough to start fixing this cheers Nasenbaer
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heartsinger Topic Opener
Joined: 2012-08-13, 06:05
Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands Location: West Coast, USA |
Posted at: 2012-08-14, 01:50
Thanks. :) For now, I'm marking everything I edit for review in case something I change the name of needs to stay the same for coding purposes. Hi, I'm a writer.
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Alazair
Joined: 2012-10-10, 14:22
Posts: 12 Pry about Widelands |
Posted at: 2012-10-13, 14:55
If this is as open to editing by (new) players as it seems, I think I'll help with this some. It would be cool to be able to fix many of the absolutely atrocious tooltips... Though, I laugh at ones such as, "skipped work because: not economy needs Flour"... If I post a new translation suggestion over yours, Heartsinger, it is simply another option that I feel would be good and is not intended as an insult to you or as a rejection of your suggestion. I also will be marking everything that I edit for review unless told otherwise.
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SirVer
Joined: 2009-02-19, 15:18
Posts: 1440 One Elder of Players Location: Germany - Munich |
Posted at: 2012-10-13, 15:06
Welcome to the forum Alazair. It is open for anybody, so any help is welcome :). But you will find that you cannot fix this funny sentence because it is essentially a autogenerated sentence from a logical expression. It sounds funny in all languages.
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Alazair
Joined: 2012-10-10, 14:22
Posts: 12 Pry about Widelands |
Posted at: 2012-10-13, 15:48
Actually, after looking at how it is structured, the best way I can think of to fix it would be to change it to match the format of the following example: "Skipped work because: Wheat is needed and no more Flour is needed" That should allow most things to sound appropriate whether used positively (is needed) or negatively (is not needed). The only exception I can think of is Meal because the word sounds funny in that sentence without being pluralized and changing the "is" to "are". But the phrase is much more viable in this new form than it is currently and (to my knowledge) shouldn't break anything unless the word "economy" is required for some reason. Edit: Also, for the times when "because not:" is used, it can be changed to "because: No more" which would allow the sentence to continue with ..."Flour is needed". Edit: This phrase could also place the word "more" in front of the ware rather than after the negative term if that term is used elsewhere. If the terms for the wares are used elsewhere in other forms of sentences, the word "more" could also be left out entirely, though it doesn't sound quite as good that way. Edited: 2012-10-13, 16:30
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Alazair
Joined: 2012-10-10, 14:22
Posts: 12 Pry about Widelands |
Posted at: 2012-10-14, 10:20
Looking in more depth, I find that "economy needs" is also another term that is pulled in that specific order, so my previous suggestion won't work. However, I have another suggestion that in fact doesn't result in changing the current form much, but fixes the jarring sentence structure, instead making it just sound simple. I'd be changing "economy needs" to "need", "not" to "do not", and "because not:" to "because: do not" and fixing the capitalization issue with "skipped Work", though I'll be leaving "Work" capitalized because I believe that is pulled at the beginning of other sentences. "Skipped Work because: need Wheat and do not need Flour" "Skipped Work because: do not need Flour" This should be effective for both versions and not require many changes. It also shouldn't cause any major issues because "not" and "do not" are either equally effective in all situations, or it is normally very easy to alter other sentences to match by changing only a word or two. Also, if "economy needs" is not pulled for any other sentences, it should be changed instead to "need more" to make the sentence sound better (and more accurate). Hopefully this helps, and if no problems with other logical expressions are mentioned here, I will make the suggested translation changes in Launchpad. Edited: 2012-10-14, 10:38
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heartsinger Topic Opener
Joined: 2012-08-13, 06:05
Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands Location: West Coast, USA |
Posted at: 2012-10-16, 04:26
Alazair, I'm not in the least offended, especially since you seem to be able to figure out what the context of the sentence fragments that we're attempting to translate are, which I haven't been able to do. I'd like to work on the big pieces of text in the help section, but I can't seem to find those. Hi, I'm a writer.
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chuckw
Joined: 2010-03-15, 16:23
Posts: 945 One Elder of Players Location: New York - USA |
Posted at: 2012-10-16, 16:41
Hello, heartsinger and Alazair! Welcome to the Widelands forums, both of you. You can see at the left that I, too, hail from the States. There is, indeed, some loving attention needed for the English text in Widelands. The more prominent cases you will likely find stem from auto-generation of the text as SirVer has stated. I, myself, have provided occasional assistance as a copy editor, but I can attest that more work can be done. I have to applaud the original authors of the English text that we find in the game, because it has displayed a firm working knowledge of what is a second language to virtually all of our coders. I know that I am certainly not equipped to match their attempt in any language other than English (and even THAT is doubtful). I applaud you both for volunteering your time and energies in this regard and I offer a couple observations. 1) If you haven't already done so, I urge you to read the GettingStarted Wiki page. 2) An English "Translation" of what is intended to be English text from the outset seems redundant IMHO. 3) heartsinger, if, as indicated by the signature on your posts, you are using the Build 15RC1 version of the game, I urge you both to update your files to at the very least the most recent stable "Official" release, Build17. Ideally, you should obtain and work with the current "Development" release. Executable Builds of both can be obtained via the "Downloads/The Game" links in the header of this page. The uncompiled source code can be found at http://launchpad.net/widelands. If you have already done so, GREAT! Again, Welcome! I see little people.
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heartsinger Topic Opener
Joined: 2012-08-13, 06:05
Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands Location: West Coast, USA |
Posted at: 2012-10-16, 19:40
Glad to be here, Chuck, especially since everyone is so nice. Certainly. I couldn't manage this game at all, considering my nonexistent coding skills, and if I could, I couldn't do it in any language other than English. 1) I read the Getting Started page a while ago. Thanks, though 2) I don't know anything about coding, so I don't really know if I can help with that. 3) That is a little out of date, actually. I run Linux Mint 11 (Katya), and I linked to the PPA, so I'm currently running 1:17-ppa0-bzr6431+trunk+~natty1, which I think is the latest development release. Like I said, not a coder. Hi, I'm a writer.
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The fact that the programs are coded in an English-based language certainly helps, but it is acknowledged that it usually takes the skills of a native speaker to iron out some of the unvalidated "wrinkles" in the text.