Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Me, CAT tools en Microsoft

When you are not a translator and when you have no dealings with the translation business, you would not expect that anything that I can do could threaten business interests of Microsoft. I was therefore very suprised when I was informed that my wish for a reference implementation of a translation glossary and my wish to integrate such a functionality in open source CAT tools like OmegaT do just that.

I am actively looking for money to enhance OmegaT. Not because I am likely ever to use it, but because I want quality translations in Ultimate Wiktionary. This reference implementation will do exactly that. In order to make OmegaT less user-feindly, there several little things that can be done. Sabine, defined some quirks that are a barrier for newbies. She also identified that "Trados" compatibility would be really important to introduce many translators to OmegaT.

A friend of mine is working on three annoying things. He is a professional programmer. He will inform us how much time it costs and how much it would cost if 100 translators payed for this. The point that I want to drive home is, that you can either pay for a license or you pay for functionality. When you pay for functionality, it will prove to be much cheaper.

I have my reasons why I want OmegaT to be a success, Microsoft happens to be the monopolist in the translation/localisation business. It is a genuine suprise but when you think about it, it should not be.

Thanks,
GerardM