Automated page translation with Google

[Roberto Mariottini]

Walter Bright wrote:
> 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.

Again, let me not agree.

When you are an Italian programmer, you know what a "bug" is. And even 
if you are speaking in Italian you call it "bug". And also a "debugger" 
is called a "debugger".
Having the translator change this key words to "insect" and 
"adjustment/tuning program" adds only garbage to the nonsense.
And I can also add "template", "thread", "link", "linker" and so on.

Having also the examples "translated" is another big problem.

> 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.

Let me add that an average Italian programmer knows enough English to 
read programming manuals. Maybe you didn't notice, but none of the most 
successful IDE has been translated into Italian, and so no Italian 
documentation has been written for them.

I suggest to revise your English documentation instead: make it simpler 
and you'll get more non-native speakers.

Another hint: I use automatic translators to ensure they can get right 
my English. I copy and paste my English text to the translator and see 
if it can output an acceptable Italian. Often the problem can resolved 
simply:
  - adding a comma or changing the order of the words
  - using active form instead of passive
  - adding some clarifying "of" or "to" or "that"
  - using a synonym that the translator likes more

For example changing the problematic paragraph:
"D is statically typed, and compiles direct to native code. It's 
multiparadigm: supporting imperative, object oriented, and template 
metaprogramming styles. It's a member of the C syntax family, and its 
look and feel is very close to C++'s. For a quick feature comparison, 
see this comparison of D with C, C++, C# and Java."

To the more easily translatable:
"D is a statically typed programming language, and compiles directly to 
machine code. It's multiparadigm, supporting many programming styles: 
imperative, object oriented, and metaprogramming. It's a member of the C 
syntax family, and its appearance is very similar to that of C++. For a 
quick comparison of the features, see this comparison of D with C, C++, 
C# and Java."

Leads to something that is more comprehensible in Italian and French 
(I'm not sure it's correct English, though).

What I did:
"Native code" was translated as "code [belonging to one by birth]", so I 
changed it to "machine code".
The second sentence had to be reordered because it was problematic: 
"styles" was incorrectly associated to "metaprogramming" and 
"supporting" to "template". "Template" had to be removed: I found no way 
to get this word right.
"Look and feel" had to be substituted with "appearance" in order to not 
get "sight and (tactile) sensation".
"Very close to C++'s" had to be reworded as "very similar to that of 
C++" to not get "near [in space] to C++".

Still, "statically typed" is translated as "statically [type]written". I 
have no clue on this.

Ciao