Re: Emacs as a translator's tool

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2020-09-17, at 17:16, Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> wrote:

> Okay, I've finally implemented this, and pushed a version 0 of a package
> called org-translate to ELPA. You can see the code here:

Hi Eric,

so, after more than a year, I decided to finally take a look.  (Well,
the main reason I started this thread was that I was translating
a relatively short paper, which was done pretty quickly, so I didn't
have much motivation to dive into this...  Sorry!)  I only read the
readme for now, but it looks interesting.

It turned out that I'm now in the middle (sort-of) of another
translation project, much bigger this time.  (It started over a year ago
and I estimate that it's going to take me at least half a year, maybe
more if the scope increases, which is pretty likely.)  The trouble is,
your package won't help me /at all/, since it is tied to Org-mode.  My
project involves translating subtitles in .srt format.  (I blogged about
it twice:
http://mbork.pl/2020-10-26_Scrolling_all_windows_simultaneously
http://mbork.pl/2021-05-30_Extending_subed-mode; I also blogged about my
previous similar project:
http://mbork.pl/2020-10-12_Editing_subtitles_in_Emacs_with_subed)

Of course, when translating subtitles, segmentation is basically taken
care of already (even if I sometimes need to change it a bit).  On the
other hand, being able to view the relevant place in the source in
a separate window, while not strictly necessary, could be helpful.
Also, a glossary would be nice, too.  Is there any chance of separating
org-translate from Org itself?  (It could be useful for other cases,
too, like translating papers in LaTeX - which I also did a few times in
the past.)

I could help you with coding (though not now, I'm very busy until
February or March), but I'd probably have to sort out legal stuff with
the FSF (I have their copyright papers signed, but I changed jobs from
university teacher to a programmer since then).

Best,

--
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl