ANNOUNCE: XLIFF Tools project

[Asgeir Frimannsson]

Announcing Freedesktop.org's XLIFF Tools Project.
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XLIFF (XML Localisation Interchange File Format) [1] is an open XML standard 
for exchange of localisable data. XLIFF has many features that other 
localisation formats (such as Gettext PO) is lacking, including support for 
binary data formats, workflow support and inclusion of translation 
suggestions from e.g. TMX [2] based translation memories. 

The XLIFF Tools project aims to implement support for XLIFF in open source 
localisation workflows. Specifically, this project aims to:
 - Develop XLIFF filters for common open source file formats (e.g.
Gettext PO, Docbook, .desktop files, Glade/Qt UI dialogs)
 - Implement and improve XLIFF support in open source localisation tools
 - Implement tools to support XLIFF-based localisation in open source
development processes.

The first phase of this project will be focusing on the Gettext PO file 
format. As a first step, guidelines will be defined on how to represent PO in 
XLIFF. This guide will be submitted to the XLIFF Technical Committee for 
review and possible inclusion as the XLIFF 1.1 PO File Representation Guide 
[3]. 

The first set of tools being developed are filters to convert between PO and 
XLIFF, based on the XLIFF PO representation guide: 
 - po2xliff: Convert a PO file to XLIFF
 - xliff2po: Convert a XLIFF file back to PO
 - xliffinit: Initialize a XLIFF file for a specific locale
 - xliffmerge: Merge translated XLIFF file with newly created XLIFF template 
(similar to msgmerge for PO)

For more information and to get involved, visit the project web-site 
[http://xliff-tools.freedesktop.org] and subscribe to the mailing list 
[http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xliff-tools].

References:
[1] http://www.xliff.org/
[2] http://www.lisa.org/tmx/
[3] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/200410/msg00009.html

cheers,
Asgeir Frimannsson <asgeirf at redhat.com>