January 27, 2010
It must have been nearly a year since I have been posting about the Localization Dictionary and that it will get made up very soon. Soooo now has finally the day come to announce that I made it. Here’s a little screenshot: (yeha)
There are a few significant changes. Here are the major features/changes:
- Imports .lod, .ldb, .loc, .ad and .xlf files!
- Dictionaries can be limited to some languages
- Normalization on a language to reduce size
- Very fast file import, many performance improvements
- Searching finally works
And so on… Next up in a few days is exporting – to TMX and as Dictionary. Read you soon!
January 23, 2010
Just a quick update on what has happened recently: I added support for both the XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format 1.2) and the TMX (Translation Memory eXchange 1.4) standards to the framework. This now allows developers on a Mac to exchange a localization project using XLIFF, as well enables translators and localizers to use their existing glossaries using TMX. A nice side note: as the standards for both formats support embedded RTF content, the Localization Suite added this support as well.
If you get the latest nightly build of the Localization Manager, a new export and import command for XLIFF will have appeared. The support for TMX is not yet visible, as this will be available in Localization Dictionary only. Therefor, I will have to finally make the app work again – which I am doing right now. So stay tuned.
BTW: The recent nightly builds also sport a set of bug fixes and minor improvements to make things work a bit smoother. An update via Sparkle will hopefully come soon.
Have a nice weekend, Max
January 18, 2010
Yes, it happened. Just a few minutes ago my algorithm worked for the first time — adjusting a user interface completely autonomous using automatically generated structure, constraints and so on. While the thing is FAR from finished and while any further details about the algorithm and so on will have to wait for later, I want to share two pictures with you. They don’t look any spectacular — but keep in mind that after changing the title of the one button, the complete resizing has been done autonomously. A thing you can easily see: the buttons still have the same size and the same distances.
Before:
After:
For those not yet knowing: I am working on a thesis about automatic resizing of user interfaces during localization. Keep the applause coming… 
January 7, 2010
And if there’s a good news item having a #1, there must be a number 2. And here it goes: The fine boys over at wordcrafts in Flensburg (as well Germany) will do the documentation for the Localization Suite. This is an incredible value and I am very pleased by them doing so.
For those who are not yet familiar with wordcrafts: they are top experts in regards of localization and documentation, able to deliver quality translations in a reliable, timely manner. And having documentation pros doing my documentation seems to be far beyond anything I could have done on my own — kudos for that!
January 7, 2010
My call for icons just before christmas must have been very well received. I got multiple offers to create a nicely looking set. So here comes my great great greatest thanks to the guys over at Boinx for having their designer do the hard work!
For those of you having not yet had the chance to meet them in Munich or at the WWDC, let you be told these are awesome developers doing amazing software — and the most important: localizing it with the Loc-Suite. Again, my thanks for helping me out on a problem that has been bugging me for at least four (in numbers: 4) years!
January 7, 2010
I finally managed to register the Loc-Suite at Twitter so you all can follow the development quite easily! Find me at @twitter!
December 11, 2009
As the version 3 is finally emerging toward a very nice state, there’s still one thing that is disturbing me since a very long time: the current set of icons. They are a mix of various different design attempts, all either failed or canceled. This is why I am writing to you:
I’m looking for someone who wants to create or donate a nice set of icons for these tools. Basically it’s three application icons and each with an according document icon. That’s all.
If you want to donate some money to the project, this would be a very good thing to do! Drop me a line at max [at] loc-suite [dot] org and let me know if you have any interest!
Thanks, Max
November 19, 2009
I know it’s been a little silent during the last weeks. Busy times over here, a lot of other things going on. There’s one great news regarding the Loc-Suite: I just started work on my thesis about automatic interface adjustments. Let’s see how it comes along. I might post some news as well.
However today is some more good news:
I finally took the time and added a long-requested feature — a little statistics window. Basically this does nothing but showing some statistics for currently selected objects. This works both in Localizer (in the bundle selection, key list and detail editor) and in the Manager (in the bundles and languages list, as well as in the file contents view).
Let me hear what you think and keep reporting bugs! This new panel will be in tomorrows nightly build and maybe even still today in the auto update.
September 10, 2009
I just posted the latest and greatest (*hust*) changes to Sparkle, so all users will hopefully see a update warning the next time they start up their tools. I also uploaded these versions to the stable directory. Have fun, gimme lots of feedback!
September 3, 2009
At last year’s Macoun Conference for Mac OS X developers I held a session about Localization that included a motivation and a introduction to the Localization Suite. While the slides have been out there quite some time, the session video has still been pending. But now it’s time for the Showtime!.
Have fun!
