Automated page translation with Google

[Walter Bright]

Roberto Mariottini wrote:
> That's your side of the medal. Since most translation software is made 
> by English-speaking people, translating from some other language to 
> English works better than the reverse.

I can believe that.

> In my experience the reverse doesn't work at all.
> 
> It's not a miracle when "web" is translated as "photoreceptor", or any 
> other funny word. The main D page translated in Italian makes no sense, 
> so it helps no-one having it.

I don't know Italian, but I've worked with German electronics tech stuff 
auto-translated to English. You quickly figure out that "river" really 
means "electric current", and "tension" really means "voltage". If your 
interest is getting your work done, the translators really are an aid.

It's surprising how little of a hint one really needs in order to get 
the information you need out of a chunk of foreign language text. When I 
worked with the Japanese tech manuals, not only was there no translation 
software, the stuff was not even in the roman alphabet, but I was able 
to crack it by looking at the diagrams and things that are universal, 
like hex numbers, "RS-232", etc.