R: R: Suggestion on formatting a list in HTML+ svn logo usage

C. Michael Pilato cmpilato at red-bean.com
Fri Jul 7 08:04:44 CDT 2006


Federico Nebiacolombo wrote:
> Dear all,
>         I have just committed last revision for index-it.html which contain
> my translation table proposal (but I really do not know so much about web
> site update frequency).
> 
> I also took a look at pt solution: it absolutely clear and smart.
> Although I choose a bit different way, not for sake of change, but simply
> for some needing that I shortly try to explain in this mail.
> 
> - We (svn-it team) divide each chapter in different parts to parallelize the
> translation and merge resuls from different translators.
> This is the reason about the fact that each chapter has different parts with
> independent status.
> We manage details about this using a simple text file in src/it stuff, so we
> do not want duplicate information about chapter owners: this is the reason
> for which I did not put text related to translation status or progressing
> (45%,...) in table cells.

I hate to say it, but I'm still confused by the page as it stands today.
Things in the first column have 1-3 status indicators, while things in the
second have only 1.  It's not clear why that imbalance exists.  I would
strongly suggest that, rather than trying to overload a single chapter's
status with multiple indicators, take your work policy and apply it to your
reporting policy.  That is, if you divide each chapter so you can
parallelize, then simply treat each divided chapter as a unique section in
the status chart.

You could quite easily just use the table designed for the pt_BR team, and
expand it vertically.  Instead of having just "Chapter 1", you might have
"Chapter 1 (a)", "Chapter 1 (b)", and "Chapter 1 (c)".  That way each row
represents a logical chunk of the book as *you've* divided it, and can show
its own independent status.

> - As Pilato suggested: all the information is inside color, you get a quick
> idea of 'translation status' evaluating how much red/green is present. Of
> course this is still valid in your (pt) model.

To be clear, my suggestion was *not* to have all the information represented
by color.  That causes problems for colorblind folks.  My suggestion was to
use color to enhance the chart so that non-colorblind visitors can quickly
get a feel for the status of the translation effort as a whole.

> - We do not divide between translation status and verification status, from
> our point translation status starts from NA (not assigned) to TC
> (Translation completed).

Fair enough.  But again, I would suggest using the pt_BR table, and simply
dropping the verification status column.

There is value, I think, in having all the translation teams reporting
status in more-or-less the same way.  I'm not interested in trying to push
that as a matter of policy -- the teams know best what works for them and
what doesn't.  I'm just offering my honest opinions about this matter
because you asked.  :-)

> *** IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ THIS ***
> Finally, I kindly (and formally) ask permission to use the svn logo
> introduced in the top of the page to denote the it support to svn, as you
> can see I modified it a little.
> If the use or modifcation of the logo creates some troubles: please let me
> known: I will remove it asap.
> *** IMPORTANT END ***

We (the Subversion book team) haven't the power to grant permission to tweak
that logo, but speaking as a Subversion core developer, I've got a problem
with modifying the logo in that fashion.  And speaking as a web designer,
there's simply no need or aesthetic value to having that logo plopped into
the middle of your translation page.  Please do remove it.

-- 
C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato at red-bean.com>

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has
 been found difficult; and left untried."  -- G. K. Chesterton
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://www.red-bean.com/pipermail/svnbook-dev/attachments/20060707/886c6d4c/attachment-0001.sig>


More information about the svnbook-dev mailing list