Re: Spanish Help Text -- BPCS-L


Since we "own" the source (which the help text is a part of), and have the
right to modify it as we like, I can't imagine why changing the help text
to read how we want it to read (i.e., Spanish!) could be a problem.  Am I
missing something there?

I did find a software tool that converts English to Spanish and Spanish to
English ... for $150, it's worth a try.  While I have gotten responses off
line from several people looking to sell me "translation" services, I don't
think that's what I want to do.  We have quite a few people at our Mexican
facilities that are bilingual, so I'm hoping that if a software tool can do
an 80 - 90% accurate job, they can compare the result to the original
English and make the necessary changes.

While your suggestion about selecting the language in SYS600 sounds
logical, since they sell different Spanish and English versions, it stands
to reason that that option would only work if you've purchased both
versions.  (Just as a note, the Mexican consulting group we're working with
said that the Spanish version of BPCS is European Spanish, as opposed to
Latin American Spanish, which is apparently very different ... in their
opinion, we are much better off just using the English!)






MacWheel99@aol.com@midrange.com on 03/06/2001 02:26:01 AM

Please respond to BPCS-L@midrange.com

Sent by:  owner-bpcs-l@midrange.com


To:   BPCS-L@midrange.com
cc:

Subject:  Re: Spanish Help Text


You might also ask your SSA account representative if SSA has any problems
with what you are planning, since this stuff is copyright them.  If you do
a
less that perfect job it might reflect badly on them from perspective of
BPCS
sales to other Mexican factories.  If you do a terrific job, other
customers
might want the same deal.

You might check MIDRANGE_L archives.  There was a recent thread there about
the state of art of translating stuff on the 400 between English & Spanish
&
the answer was that there aint one for the 400 & there aint one for PCs,
there is just software that people make a lot of money selling other
people,
that does not work satisfactorily in the real business world.

We have not had occasion to use this, but it seems like there are
multi-lingual options at the BPCS 405 CD level, which we have.  If you are
a
BPCS Security Officer go into SYS600 screen & look at the top line where it
defines a USER as having, or not having, command line attention key
authority, then over on the far right upper corner there is a code for the
user's LANGUAGE.

Also in the OS/400 WRKUSRPRF Security, there is a space for the user's
LANGUAGE.

My understanding was that the function of this was to make it possible for
one AS/400 to support people who are native in different languages at the
same time ... the USER ID specifies what LANGUAGE they see stuff in, but it
is just words, not neccessarily a good translation & of course if I SNDMSG
to
someone else, that is not translated.

My understanding is that the LANGUAGE setting of the USER in the BPCS
Security setup causes selection of a LANGUAGE LIBRARY in their BPCS *LIBL
library list in which SPANISH speaking people would have a different
library
than FRENCH speakers.

This affects all sorts of things ... error message text, literals on
screens
explaining what the various values signify.

This is explained some place ... I would start looking with the DOC menu,
document SSALOG00.

Perhaps the price on the entire Spanish version is more than you can
justify,
but perhaps you can get pieces of it.

If you want to translate the HELP text, the English version is in QPNLSRC
written in UIM, which is similar conceptually to HTML - I not learned this
yet.

You would need to be able to get the TEXT to WORD with the UIM lines
stripped
off, assuming this is alien to the human translator, and have the
translator
familiar with what fits on a BPCS 400 screen & make suggestions regarding
breaks in the text, and you then have to figure out how to reinsert the UM
lines ... you almost need an automatic generator like SDA where someone
doodles the text, and the source gets compiled.

If you are not using a human translator, you probably want to leave the UIM
lines intact, but somehow program the translator software to ignore the UIM
lines so that you do not convert code lines that need to be a certain way
to
Spanish equivalents that won't compile.

How does SSA write this in the first place anyway ... does As/Set do this?

One thing I have noticed is that the same phraseology shows up again &
again
& again, especially in the on-line documentation.  What this or that field
is
for & what can go in it, and how that program works.

There may be value in organizing your copy of the documentation, so you
have
explanations by field, then this might cut down on the amount of
translation
you need to do.

> From: Lisa.Abney@sensient-tech.com
>
>  Hi!  Couldn't quite figure out which list this question belonged on, so
>  thought I'd start here.
>
>  We're implementing BPCS (4.0.5, non-CD) in two facilities in Mexico.  We
>  could not negotiate a reasonable price on the Spanish version of the
>  software, and the users there think they'll be OK with the English
version
>  of the screens, but we all agree it would be really nice to have the
help
>  text in Spanish.
>
>  Has anyone ever done this, or have suggestions as to the best way?  In
RPG,
>  these are just text files.  I'm considering purchasing an
English/Spanish
>  translation software package, converting the text files to a Word
document
>  (haven't figured out how, but I'm sure it can be done!), doing the
>  translation, then converting the Word document back to the text file.
This
>  sounds rather cumbersome, but better than hiring someone to do the
>  translations manually.  Any idea if this will work, or any better ideas?

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
AS/400 Data Manager & Programmer for BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 mixed mode (twinax
interactive & batch) @ http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of
Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical
sub-assemblies - fax # 812-424-6838

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