The situation with translations is very complicated. They involve a great deal of work and co-ordination, and because of this, I am generally very cautious about taking on new languages. Each language has to have its own resource sets, its own list memberships, its own distribution and testing regime; it has to be hurried along when it falls behind, and has to be regularly told about changes and additions. Almost inevitably, I become involved any time there's a question about the intention of a string, phrase or other resource, and I have to consult with all the teams any time I plan a major addition to make sure that there are no issues associated with that.

For a time, I had a "translation co-ordinator", but that approach didn't work out, and for a time the translation process basically died altogether. I ended up resurrecting it myself, something I have very limited resources for. The only formula I found that would work was to have teams led by someone I trust (in almost every case a long-time beta tester) who would co-ordinate the process and involve me only when it was unavoidable.

I've been very lucky that the French, Italian and German translations are led by extremely good and motivated individuals who have involved me to the smallest possible extent. By contrast, I have tried three times to establish Spanish translation teams, and each time they have failed dismally. Other languages typically haven't fared much better. Please note that I am not being critical of the translators in these cases - there was a failure of process, and lack of time and involvement on my part that meant that they could never establish enough impetus to get going properly.

A lot of the problem is that people simply don't understand the enormity of the process, nor the level of technical knowledge required (it's *not* just a case of running Notepad and translating some strings). There are also problems with finding good tools to handle the process - I've now tried several, with mediocre results at best. Most people also fail to appreciate that the effort is ongoing: a translation that only works with a  single version of the program is essentially useless.

I would love to have a good Spanish translation of Pegasus Mail - it would give me the classic "EFIGS" translation set (English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) and would be useful to a great many people. The problem is that I do not have (as far as I know) a Spanish beta tester, nor even a long-time beta tester who is Spanish-speaking, and in the absence of such a person to act as a team leader, past experience makes me very reluctant to approve a team.

The situation with languages/scripts that have non-Western orthography, such as Hebrew or Mandarin, is much more complex. The program dates from a time when these languages simply weren't a consideration, and it simply hasn't ever been designed with them in mind. To handle non-Western orthography you really have to design your application from the ground up to be able to do so, and the changes required for a codebase as long-standing as mine would be very considerable indeed. I am told that Pegasus Mail can be made to work to some extent with some non-Western scripts, but if that is so, then it is largely by accident and definitely not through good design on my part. I lack the resources and language skills necessary to be able to handle these types of language changes and currently do not have an effective plan for dealing with them, other than possibly considering a complete rewrite of the program in .NET, which is not going happen any time soon (it would be at least a year's work, plus the learning curve time adapting to the new technologies).

This message is rather longer than I wanted it to be, but I feel it's important to lay out clearly what the situation is regarding this very important area. If the issue of producing new translations seems slow and unusually obtuse, it is not because I do not appreciate the value or importance of such translations - it's merely a reflection of the limits I face as a solo developer operating on minimal resources. I would love to be able to do better than I currently do, but best intentions alone are not going to do the work. *Sigh*.

Cheers!

-- David --

Found it! :-)

-----

Hello,

This has been around (but unfortunately not sorted out) for a long time. I even was part of 2 translating teams for a while, but, like I mentioned, it never succeeded.

Now, I would very much like to have Pegasus Mail translated into Spanish. Not for me, though, as I do not use tarnslated versions of software, but for the vast majority of Spanish-speaking users around (do you know that there are over 400 million Spanish-speaking inhabitants in this planet?).

I kind of fell I owe this to Mr Harris, since long, long ago, he was kind enough to send me a manual free of charge (which I could not afford at that time, and even if I could have, due to very specific monetary regulations in my country, I would not be able to transfer any money abroad). The manual is relatively useless now, since it is for a very old version, but I still cherish it.

I am mostly off work in June, and although I know this would be a highly demanding task, I am willing to at least try (fingers crossed, the third attempt will be the winning one!) so if I am sent all the texts that need be translated, I am willing to begin doing so. Unfortunately, I lack the time to be in "paperwork" issues, like signing NDA which would take over a month (yes!) to get to New Zealand or wherever, by which time I should resume my day-to-day routine, so I publicly declare on this forum:

1.- I can try to translate the program into Spanish, either alone or with the help of those willing.

2.- I will not disclose any relevant information about the software, especially, if it jeopardises in any way its numerous advantages over other email clients like any of MicroSoft's or other companies.

3.- If Mr. Harris wants me to help him (I am appalled that he actually devotes part of his time to follow up this forum), he can contact me as appears below:

Abel Rodriguez Gil

mailto: cain at cristal - hlg - sld - cu (sorry, I don't want the spam seekers to get my address so easily, so the hyphens need be substituted my dots).

Tel: +5324-424833

Cell: +535-286 8880

And, I won't end without first praising the great Pegasus Mail, which has been around for 15 years now (this is a major celebration for girls in my country), and is still as useful and neat as it was in the beginnings... And obviously, to its main creator, David Harris, along with his support and beta-test teams!

Regards,

Abel