One of the readers of my previous blog on Java Localization mentioned that the apostrophe (a “single quote” character) is also a very special character in a Java string and just today I got a support case dealing with exactly this issue. The question of our customer is why a single apostrophe that is entered into a string translation in SDL Passolo is written to the target Java property file as two apostrophes. Let me try to explain.

One of the technical aspects of .NET which can impact localization is the concept of signed assemblies. In this blog I will discuss with you what signing of assemblies is about and how to deal with them in the context of software localization.

Vom 18. – 20. Oktober 2011 findet die tekom Jahrestagung in Wiesbaden statt, die SDLs starke Präsenz in den deutschsprachigen Märkten wiederspiegelt.

Sehen Sie die neuesten Lösungen für Textredaktion und Übersetzungstechnologie – abgestimmt auf die Bedürfnisse dieser Märkte – auf den SDL-Messeständen 430 & 437 in Halle 4: 

• Eine Vorschau auf die neue Serverlösung. Diese richtet sich besonders an kleine und mittelgroße Übersetzungsteams in mittelständischen Unternehmen sowie an Übersetzungsagenturen.
• SDL Global Authoring Management System. Die Lösung für Textredaktion und –optimierung berücksichtigt Ihre stilistischen Unternehmensvorgaben, Ihre Corporate Language sowie die deutschen linguistischen Regeln und trägt somit zur Reduzierung der Übersetzungskosten bei.  
• SDL Trados Studio 2011. Die marktführende Translation-Memory-Lösung bietet mit SDL BeGlobal eine sichere, integrierte Lösung für Maschinelle Übersetzung.
• SDL WorldServer 2011. Die Übersetzungsmanagement-Lösung – in deutscher Sprache verfügbar – bietet besonders Übersetzungsteams in globalen Unternehmen sowie großen Sprachdienstleistern die Möglichkeit, den Übersetzungsprozess optimal zu managen. 

Diese und weitere Lösungen präsentiert SDL in verschiedenen Workshops, Konferenzen, Tool- und Standpräsentationen sowie bei Panel-Diskussionen. Eine Übersicht alle SDL-Präsentationen finden Sie unter: http://www.sdl.com/en/language-technology/news-and-events/sdl-events/emea/2011q4/2011-10-18-tekom-annual-conference-2011.asp

SDL bietet mit seinem Produktportfolio Softwarelösungen für Unternehmen, Übersetzungsagenturen, Übersetzer und Textredakteure. Dabei werden alle Bedürfnisse der verschiedenen Zielgruppen abgedeckt; angefangen bei den Übersetzern und Textredakteuren bis hin zu kleinen, mittleren und großen Teams in Unternehmen und bei Sprachdienstleistern.

SDL OpenExchange rundet das Portfolio ab. Diese Plattform ermöglicht Entwicklern, Applikationen zu erstellen und der SDL-Community kostenlos bzw. günstig anzubieten. Nutzer können dank dieser Anwendungen die Leistung ihrer Übersetzungssoftware weiter steigern, sei es durch die Unterstützung bestimmter Prozessschritte oder weiterer Dateiformate.

SDL OpenExchange sehen Sie live auf unseren Messeständen. Alternativ finden Sie weitere Informationen  unter  http://www.sdl.com/en/language-technology/sdl-openexchange/. Hier haben Entwickler auch die Möglichkeit, bei unserem Wettbewerb mitzumachen und einen Teil des Gesamtpreises von 10.000€ zu gewinnen. 

Wir freuen uns auf Ihren Besuch!

We recently had a Java support case which made us review the behavior of the SDL Passolo parser for Java property files . Our customer observed that the same sentence – which occurs in two different source files – was being written differently to the target files. We could reproduce the behavior and the two variants look like this in the target files while the source files both contained the first variant:

A string “containing” double quotes.
A string \”containing\” double quotes.

These two variants are in fact equal representations and are handled identically by the Java framework. But the customer was concerned because of the different behavior of Passolo for each source file. So we had to investigate a little further and here are our findings.

Last week we hosted the SDL Localization Day, where we looked at the issues of delivering software on a global scale. It was made up of six sessions including, as is so often missed with these events, a customer case study from Roche Diagnostics.

For the format of the day, we ran a series of webinars “nose to tail”, meaning that you could drop in and out as needed. It seemed that most people stayed for all sessions, but as everything was virtual, we didn’t really know if you’d stepped away from your desk for comfort or tea breaks!

Last week I discussed the buzz about Agile and what this means for software localization, and I had some interesting feedback. Now I want to expand on this with some use cases for integrating agile software development with software localization.

Mixing agile and waterfall workflows

You might use agile development but only hand over material to your localization resources when the feature set has stabilized. There will be some mid-localization drops to handle. This is a valid scenario with the main difference being that by using Agile, the time between code freeze and delivery is much shorter than in the more traditional software development workflows. This can be compensated by allocating more resources to the software localization project, or by accepting an earlier but functionally incomplete drop. It is all about when the code is stable and complete enough to involve the localization team. You need to consider the potential for increased management overhead and quality risks.

Loosely coupled agility

If sim-ship is required, it makes sense to start localizing your software earlier in the development life cycle. But even in this scenario it does not necessarily mean that the localization team needs to be embedded in the development workflow and to deliver against each and every sprint (a sprint is the period of time, usually 2 weeks, during which a defined set of development work has to be delivered). The localization team needs to be able to efficiently handle mid-localization updates on perhaps a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Localization based on binary files, the usage of localization tools to maximize the reuse of translations during mid-localization updates, and project management tools can all help to improve efficiency in this scenario.

Software localization embedded into the agile development process

Here we have software localization tightly integrated with the software development process. In its extreme, this means that the localization experts become part of the scrum team as one additional stakeholder to define and drive the development. Tools can help to minimize the friction between the different workflows for development and localization.

What benefits can you expect when you integrate localization more into the agile development workflow? I see three main benefits:

1. Starting localization early in the development process can help to identify internationalization issues at an early stage. This benefit aligns very well to the goals of agile development. 
2. Getting linguists involved at an early stage can help to improve the quality and consistency of  the source language as well as the target languages, and can also bring user experience benefits.
3. If localization is a continuous process, less localization resources need to be allocated for a project and they can become product experts on the fly.

Agile software development does not force us to re-invent the proven workflows used in software localization, although adjustments in the processes and the proper use of technologies will help.  It is more about new opportunities to get more involved, and earlier involved, in the software development process to bring in the expertise about languages and software internationalization.

As a summary let me re-write one of the principles of the Agile Manifesto to underline the value we can provide:
Business people, developers and localization experts must work together daily throughout the project.

If you want to learn more about how SDL's localization tools are supporting agile software localization processes, please join us at the Virtual SDL Passolo day on 22 September 2011. We are running this in English and German and we invite you to participate in the discussion!