Experiences from Greek Ubuntu localisation Team

[Ngwe Tun]

I am glad you are trying to get Brumese supported in the Ubuntu.

A. I suggest that you create a Google Groups mailing list, from
http://groups.google.com/
This would be the easiest way to bring people together. There is an
option to get a mailing list from ubuntu.com, however, it requires
some skills, and this would take you time to set up.

B. Once you have the mailing list/Google group set up, you can
announce the effort at the Ubuntu Rosetta Administrators,
https://edge.launchpad.net/~rosetta-admins
You can find the e-mail there (ros...@launchpad.net), and ask them so
that you can get an entry for Burmese, so that it appears in the page
https://translations.launchpad.net/+groups/ubuntu-translators
They will be able to tell you if there are any extra requirements.

C. The biggest part of Ubuntu is the GNOME Desktop Environment.
Therefore, translating Ubuntu means translating GNOME.
The current details of the Burmese GNOME Team are
http://l10n.gnome.org/languages/my
Try to contact Lin Htun from that page, or in case he does not
respond, ask me again.
In any case, the documentation on the GNOME Translation Project is at
http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject

From GNOME, you should focus on GNOME 2.24. GNOME 2.22 was just
released. If you do a lot of work, you should be able to get a good
Burmese Ubuntu for the next version, at Ubuntu 8.10 (in October 2008).

D. For demonstration purposes, it is good to translate a single
program that many people use. I would recommend to translate 7Zip,
http://www.7-zip.org/
which is an open-source version compression program. In this way,
people can use 7Zip instead of WinZip, WinRAR, which in most cases are
cracked versions.

E. Apart from GNOME, Ubuntu is composed of Mozilla Firefox. Check to
see if there is any existing work before starting with Mozilla
Firefox.

F. Apart from GNOME and Firefox, Ubuntu is composed of OpenOffice.org.
Again, check if there is any existing project. I believe by the time
you will have a good translation of OpenOffice, the software will have
full OpenType support.

G. In all cases, you must make sure that you announce publicly your
intention to translate open-source software to Burmese. If there are
any people interested, they will be able to join and help with the
effort.

H. There is the issue of a free and open-source font, that will be
available by default in Ubuntu. Is there such a thing? From my last
discussion, Zaw Gyi One has a murky past and ownership. What is the
current status? You need to package the font according to the
guidelines of the Debian project, and Ubuntu will take it.

I. Regarding input methods, does Burmese require SCIM? Can it work
with XIM? You need to test, and recommend one way or another.

All the best,
Simos