Thanks from Blockly!

I have an interest in localizing programming environments for kids/beginners, which I then introduce to my students (and 7 grandchildren)! I have translated Kodu Game Lab and Small Basic from Microsoft (and been a part of the Microsoft Office and Windows translation teams). Blockly seems to be an interesting addition.

Reason I am writing is that I had an issue today: I had saved about 35% of the Icelandic translation of Blockly, then continued today and was up to 80% when the translatewiki environment let me down in a big way. None of my translations today was saved!

It seems that because I had left the page open all night I lost my login, yet the page seemed to accept and save each translation (I could go back to earlier translations). At the start I was wondering if I might have been logged out, but since I could save each translation I assumed I was still logged in.

At the end of my session I clicked one of the tabs at the top and up popped a rather vague message that I had some unsaved translations. I checked and saw the translation box was open and assumed that was causing the popup. So I OK'ed the popup. When I checked back all my day's work was gone :o( . Foul! Anyway, sadder but wiser I will try to finish the translation another day. By the way, is it possible to translate the help pages / documentation as well?

Regards Jon Georgsson

Oh no! I'll file a support request to see if your information can be recovered.

Certainly, we'd be happy for you to translate the help pages and documentation.

Thank you so much!

You're amazing! I see you've translated all of Icelandic Blockly. Thanks for your incredible work!

Do you know about code.org? They are sponsoring an international Hour of Code, and I am sure they would welcome your translation help. Don't retranslate any core Blockly messages. I'll be transferring those over.

Thank you for your kind words. And thanks for the tip about code.org. I'll have a look at it. regarding the Blockly documentation, could you give me some pointers (e.g. urls) to useful material?

Best regards Jon

Here is the English-language Blockly documentation.

Here's the response to your translatewiki issue.

Do you have a Google+ account I can reference when I announce the Icelandic translation?

Thanks again!

I'd like to give you a sneak peek (on a test server) of your translation in action (please don't share link). I'll have to wait until Monday to get a code review from my colleague before pushing to the main Blockly server.

I am reviewing my translation using the sneak peek. Should finish it Monday.

I have a G+ account (jongeorgsson@gmail.com).

I have translated the Code.org stuff. About 30% was done already, but I must say a bit sloppily, so I have made alternative translations to most of the prior work.

Two issues cropped up concerning Blockly as such: The other translators of Code.org do not translate the keywords (if, repeat, do, etc.) and also translate "block" as "unit" (icelandic: eining). I feel the keywords should be translated, otherwise the blocks will display a strange mix of the two languages. In fact, I see they have been translated for other languages. Also, for "block" I have used the word for brick (e.g. lego brick) which kids relate to. So they are building their programs out of bricks. It's brick programming! "Unit" in my view is too generic and should be left free for other uses in the text.

Best regards Jon

I agree that "unit" is too generic and that the keywords should be translated. Please also comment on crowdin.net.

Blockly Icelandic is live! I'll announce it tomorrow on Google+.

Thanks again!

Could you tell me how long it took you to translate the messages, not counting the time lost due to the authentication issue? I've been asked for an estimate of how long a translation takes.

Thank you.

About 15 hours including revisions.

Sorry I haven't replied sooner. Without thinking, I had replied to the alert from my mail inbox, but that got bounced without me noticing until now.

Regarding code.org. I see some other translators have been translating the Blockly core in their own fashion. I have ignored the core module on your advice but have proofread all the other modules and they are 100% approved.

Will you still be using my translation at translatewiki to overwrite the translations at crowdin.net?

Regards Jon

I have submitted your translation to the folks at code.org, who control crowdin.net, but they seem not to have incorporated it. :-( I don't have the authority to do more than that. I'll leave it to your judgment whether to overwrite them yourself through the interface.

Update: I emailed the head of the code.org translation, who told me he must have accidentally turned off notifications on the github translation project. He has now merged in your changes, although I don't know if they overrode others' definitions.