Re: Translation of autoconf docs into spanish

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Santilín,

* santilistas wrote on Sun, Aug 09, 2009 at 06:31:56PM CEST:
> Hi, I'd like to know if there is a translation of the autoconf docs into
> Spanish.

No, although there exists a very outdated Spanish version of the
primary Autoconf web page.

> If not, as I am going to read the manual thoroughly in order to
> understand autoconf, I've thought that I could translate it into Spanish
> at the same time. How should I start? Translating the texi files? That
> would add a little more thrilling to this task as I am eager to learn LaTeX.

First, please note that LaTeX and Texinfo are not the same thing;
GNU manuals are written in the latter.  I have no idea whether there
is a coherent effort (or, for that matter, any effort at all) to
translate the manuals into other languages.  In any case I would urge
you to enquire about that with the translation teams which manage the
translations of the GNU programs' messages and the like.

I personally would welcome a translation of a large manual like the
Autoconf one only if it was done by somebody both fairly knowledgeable
of the package in question (it's fine if you get there along the way,
but that probably means you'd have to go back to the earlier-written
parts later again), and if also the person or group would agree to
maintain the translation for an extended amount of time.  Without the
latter, a manual can still be helpful, but I would consider it a mostly
wasted effort, never recommend it to users, and, as soon as it is
outdated, I would not want to work on bug reports by users who learned
from that manual only.

Sorry to sound so negative, but really I think the translation is a huge
amount of work with limited pay-off; it would seem sensible to do only
if there was a group of people to maintain it.

Finally, thank you for the offer, and for any work you might invest in
this effort.  :-)

Cheers,
Ralf