Re: [boost] [locale] Review of Boost.Locale library

Subject: Re: [boost] [locale] Review of Boost.Locale library
From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-04-17 14:40:30

Edward Diener wrote:
> I do not think you can seriously argue that 'translation' from language X 
> to language Y is more correct if it must go from language X to language E 
> to language Y.

Translation from N source languages to M target languages requires O(M*N) 
resources, whereas translation from N source languages to E to M targets 
requires O(M+N) resources. Similarly, if you have a world with N languages, 
absent a universal second language E, people need to learn N languages to be 
able to communicate, and 2 if there exists an agreed-upon E. This is why we 
are writing in E in this very mailing list.

In theory, it's more correct to translate from X to Y, but in practice, it's 
hard to find people who are simultaneously fluent enough in X software 
terminology and Y software terminology to be able to produce a high quality 
translation.

And in any event, the fact that the source texts are in E shouldn't preclude 
your translating from X to Y. You just take the translation text file for X 
which is basically a list of (E phrase, X phrase) pairs, and translate the X 
phrases to Y phrases. This requires no E knowledge on your part.