Message
Tony,
This is very good. I wonder if it's too late in
the game to make the charter a tad less software publisher focused, in
favor of a modest acknowledgement of its usefulness in localizing
documentation as well.
Just minor touchups in the second paragraph
might achieve this. For example:
The state of affairs in software,
<insert>and
documentation</insert> localisation
before XLIFF was that a software
<insert>or
documentation</insert> provider
delivered their localisable
resources to a localisation service provider in a number of disparate
file formats. Once software providers
<insert>and technical communicators</insert> commenced
implementing XLIFF, the task of interchanging
localisation data became simpler. Using proprietary and nonstandard
resource formats force either the
<delete>software</delete><insert>source</insert>
provider or the localisation service provider to
implement a costly and inefficient bespoke process for localising their
content. For
<delete> a software</delete> publishers with many
proprietary or nonstandard formats, this requirement
becomes a major hurdle when attempting to localise their software. For
software developers
<insert>and technical
communicators</insert>
employing enterprise localisation tools and processes, XLIFF defines a
standard but extensible vocabulary
that captures relevant metadata at any point of the lifecycle which can
be exchanged between a variety of
commercial and open-source tools.
This is a rough idea of slight change of tone I
was thinking about. If it's too late in the game to change the tone,
please feel free to dismiss my idea.
Thanks,
Bryan
Hi all:
<>I've taken a stab at the first draft of the Charter
Clarification for the XLIFF TC.
We need dates assigned to the deliverables. Anyone care to take a stab
at that?
Let me know what you think...
Regards,
Tony
The charter for this TC is as follows.
Name
XML Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF)
Statement of Purpose
The purpose of the OASIS XLIFF TC is to define, through XML
vocabularies, and promote the adoption of, an extensible specification
for the interchange of localization information. To date, the
committee has published two specifications - XLIFF 1.0 and XLIFF 1.1 -
that define how to mark up and capture localizable data and
interoperate with different processes or phases without loss of
information. The vocabularies are tool-neutral, support the
localization-related aspects of internationalization and the entire
localization process. The vocabularies support common software and
content data formats. The specifications provide an extensibility
mechanism to allow the development of tools compatible with an
implementer's own proprietary data formats and workflow requirements.
The state of affairs in software localisation before XLIFF was
that a software provider delivered their localisable resources to a
localisation service provider in a number of disparate file formats.
Once software providers commenced implementing XLIFF, the task of
interchanging localisation data became simpler. Using proprietary and
nonstandard resource formats force either the software provider or the
localisation service provider to implement a costly and inefficient
bespoke process for localising their content. For a software publishers
with many proprietary or nonstandard formats, this requirement becomes
a major hurdle when attempting to localise their software. For
software developers employing enterprise localisation tools and
processes, XLIFF defines a standard but extensible vocabulary that
captures relevant metadata at any point of the lifecycle which can be
exchanged between a variety of commercial and open-source tools.
<>The first phase, now completed, created a committee
specification that concentrated on software UI file requirements. The
next phase consists of promoting the adoption of XLIFF throughout the
industry through additional collateral and specifications, continuing
to advance the committee specification towards a full OASIS standard,
contributing to the development of standard localisation directives tag
library and consuming it when available, and defining and publishing an
implementation guide for document based content that addresses
segmentation and alignment requirements. To encourage adoption of
XLIFF, the TC will define and publish implementation guides for the
most commonly used resource formats (HTML, RTF, Window Resources, Java
Resource Bundles, .NET), and will include reference implementations of
XLIFF 1.1.
The OASIS XLIFF TC concluded a 45 day public review from 11 Aug and
ended 24 September 2003. The TC revised and then approved a Committee
Specification based on the comments received, publishing the XLIFF
1.1 Committee Specification and XLIFF
1.1 XSD schema.. All public comments submitted were resolved, and a
report
of all public review activity is publicly available.
XLIFF is based on initial work done by the Yahoo! DataDefinition
Group. That group published a white paper, a specification and a DTD,
which were made public through that group's site. The XLIFF 1.0
specification was approved as Committee Specification by the XLIFF TC
in April 2002.
XLIFF 1.0 was submitted with the following intellectual property
rights statement:
Each of the submitting companies, referenced in section (vii),
below, agrees to offer a license, on reasonable and non-discriminatory
terms, to use any patent claim it owns or controls and which is
necessarily infringed by use of the XLIFF format described in this
submission or any Committee Specification or OASIS standard based
thereon. Such a license will be for the limited purpose of implementing
the XLIFF format described in this submission or in any Committee
Specification or OASIS standard based thereon, and may be conditioned
on the licensee's agreement to grant a reciprocal license on reasonable
and non-discriminatory terms to use any patent claim it owns or
controls and which is necessarily infringed by use of the XLIFF format
described in this submission or in any Committee Specification or OASIS
standard based thereon.
The archive for previous discussions can be found at the
following URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DataDefinition
The white paper, the specification, and the DTD and can be found
at this URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DataDefinition/files/Final
List of Deliverables
- XLIFF 1.1 Document-based Content Implementation Guide
(Segmentation & Alignment)
- XLIFF 1.1 XHTML/HTML Representation Guide
- XLIFF 1.1 RTF Representation Guide
- XLIFF 1.1 .NET Representation Guide
- XLIFF 1.1 Java Resource Bundle Representation Guide
- XLIFF 1.1 Windows Resources Representation Guide
- XLIFF 1.1 PO File Representation Guide
- XLIFF 1.1 Reference Implementation (as Open Source? In
collaboration with Trans-WS?)
- Submit XLIFF 1.1 for consideration as OASIS Standard
- Review and input to development of Standard Localisation
Directives Tag Library
- XLIFF 1.1: Consume / Implement Standard Localisation
Directives Tag Library
--
Tony Jewtushenko
Principal Product Manager - Oracle Application Development Tools
Oracle Corporation, Ireland
mailto:tony.jewtushenko@oracle.com
Direct tel: +353.1.8039080