07 December 2007

Narro: a web based translation tool

Narro is a web-based translation tool (with a Romanian interface) made by alexxed and used to translate some applications (OpenOffice.org, Firefox and Thunderbird) to Romanian, it is a wonderful tool and it grow on me each day.

To demonstrate how much it grew on me lately: I do not use any desktop application translated into my native language (and don't plan to start using), I prefer any time the default, English version. However, there are times when I so unmotivated, bored and sucked of energy, that I am not in the mood do do anything. But in those times, I find myself going to Narro and translating some strings...

And here is a psychological observation from using the tool: OpenOffice.org is translated about 18%, Firefox 3 90% and Thunderbird 2 93%.
If very un-fulfilling to translate OOo strings: it is such a behemoth (70,336 strings) that even if you translate a lot of strings the result is unnoticeable and its status at 18% makes the end look so far and unattainable.
By the contrary, with FF and TB you can easily see the light at the end of the tunnel, half an hour of contributing makes a difference so the process is much more motivating.

So guess where I am translating most of the time...

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