PDEP-14: First revision

Author: steppi

web/pandas/pdeps/0014-translate-website-content.md

@@ -5,137 +5,65 @@
 - Discussion: [#56301](https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/56301)
               [#57204](https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/pull/57204)
 - Author: [Albert Steppi](https://github.com/steppi),
-- Revision: 1
+- Revision: 2
 
 ## Abstract
 
 The suggestion is to have official translations made for content of the core
-project website [pandas.pydata.org](https://pandas.pydata.org) and provide a
-language drop-down selector on [pandas.pydata.org](https://pandas.pydata.org)
-similar to what currently exists at [numpy.org](https://numpy.org).
+project website [pandas.pydata.org](https://pandas.pydata.org) and offer
+a low friction way for users to access these translations on the core
+project website.
 
+## Motivation, Scope, Usage, and Impact
 
-## Motivation and Scope
+There are many potential users with no or a low level of English proficiency
+who could benefit from quality official translations of the Pandas website
+content. Though translations for all documentation would be valuable,
+producing and maintaining translations for such a large and oft-changing
+collection of text would take an immense and sustained effort which may
+be infeasible. The suggestion is instead to have translations made for only
+a key set of pages from the core project website. 
 
-Pandas is a foundational package in the Scientific Python ecosystem and there
-are many potential users with no or low English proficiency who would benefit
-from having high quality information about Pandas available in their native
-language.
-
-Translation of all content presents considerable challenge due to its sheer
-volume and due to the tendency for technical documentation to exist in a state
-of flux. The suggestion is to have translations for a targeted subset, selected:
-
-- from things which are relatively stable to reduce the ongoing burden of
-  keeping translations up to date.
-- to maximize the benefit to users and potential users who currently have no or
-  a low level of English proficiency, given the person-hours and resources that
-  are likely to be available now and into the future.
-
-Consideration of what subset of content would be most useful for users with
-no or a low level of English proficiency could be a guiding principal to help
-select what information should be available on the core project website, outside
-of the technical documentation.
-
-## Detailed Description
-
-The following is a list of all pages on the core project website which are sourced
-from markdown files at https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/tree/main/web/pandas.
-
-- Landing page: https://pandas.pydata.org
-- About pandas: https://pandas.pydata.org/about
-- Project roadmap: https://pandas.pydata.org/about/roadmap.html
-- Governance: https://pandas.pydata.org/about/governance.html
-- Team: https://pandas.pydata.org/about/team.html
-- Sponsors: https://pandas.pydata.org/about/sponsors.html
-- Citing and logo: https://pandas.pydata.org/about/citing.html
-- Getting started: https://pandas.pydata.org/getting_started.html
-- Code of conduct: https://pandas.pydata.org/community/coc.html
-- Ecosystem: https://pandas.pydata.org/community/ecosystem.html
-- Contribute: https://pandas.pydata.org/contribute.html
-
-Provisionally, the suggestion is for all of this content to be translated with
-the possible exception of the "Project roadmap", which may be of limited
-interest to new users.  Currently the "Getting started" section may be of
-limited utility to users unable to engage with the externally linked content. In
-the "Project roadmap" within the subsection labeled "Documentation improvements"
-there is a stated goal to:
-
-*Improve the "Getting Started" documentation, designing and writing learning
- paths for users different backgrounds (e.g. brand new to programming, familiar
- with other languages like R, already familiar with Python).*
-
-It is recommended that this goal be accomplished alongside translation work in
-order to make this page more useful to those with no or low English proficiency.
-This would also prevent the need for retranslation if this goal were to be
-accomplished after the original translation work is completed.
-
-A language selection drop-down should be added to the navigation-bar similar to
-what exists at https://numpy.org.
-
-
-## Usage and Impact
-
-The primary impact would be lowering the barrier to entry for non-English
-speakers to get started using Pandas and moving along the path towards learning
-to use it skillfully.
-
-In 2022 it was estimated that there were approximately 400 million native
-speakers of English and between 1.5 - 2 billion people who speak English as a
-second language worldwide
-[Wikipedia](https://web.archive.org/web/20240129080609/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-speaking_world).
-With an estimated world population of over 8 billion people, this leaves many
-for whom the Pandas core website is not directly accessible. Pandas is an
-important piece of software infrastructure for data manipulation and analysis
-with utility beyond the English speaking world. There is a vast population of
-users and potential users who could benefit from having official information
-about Pandas published in their native language.
-
-Although automated translation tools can help those with no or low English
-proficiency access the content of the Pandas website, these tools often still
-struggle with the technical and jargon-laden language of scientific
-software. This was evinced during the translation of https://numpy.org.
-Automatic translation tools are invaluable as a starting point for human
-translators, but human translators remain important to ensure accuracy.
-
-## Implementation
+## Detailed Description and Implementation
 
 The bulk of the work for setting up translation infrastructure, finding and
 vetting translators, and working out how to publish translations, will fall
 upon a cross-functional team funded by the [Scientific Python Community & Communications
 Infrastructure grant](https://scientific-python.org/doc/scientific-python-community-and-communications-infrastructure-2022.pdf)
 to work on adding translations for the main websites of all
 [Scientific Python core projects](https://scientific-python.org/specs/core-projects/).
-The goal is to minimize the burden on the core Pandas maintainers.
-
-A GitHub repository should be set up to mirror content from the core webpage
-which is selected for translation. A GitHub action should be set up to keep
-the mirrored repository up-to-date. Either an action within the main Pandas
-repo which pushes updates to the mirror, or a cron in the mirror which polls
-for relevant updates in Pandas repo and pulls them when necessary.
+The hope is to minimize the burden on the core Pandas maintainers.
 
-The mirrored repository would then be synced to the Crowdin localization
-management platform as described in
+No translated content would be hosted within the Pandas repository itself.
+Instead a separate GitHub repository could be set up containing the content
+selected for translation. This repository could then be synced to the Crowdin
+localization management platform as described in
 [Crowdin's documentation](https://support.crowdin.com/github-integration/).
-There would be separate folders within the mirror repository, one for each target
-language, with the content initially untranslated.
-Crowdin would then provide a user interface for translators, and updates
-to translations would be pushed to the branch `l10n_main` on the mirrored
-repository. Periodically, manual pull requests would be made to the main Pandas
-repo, adding translated content within folders alongside of the English content.
-
-Translations will be managed within an enterprise Crowdin organization created for
-Scientific Python localization projects. Access to this organization is
-invite-only, and translators will be vetted to help safe-guard against the
-spamming of low quality or inflammatory translations. Approval from a trusted
-admin would be required before translations are merged into the main Pandas
-repo.
-
-A language drop-down selector will need to be added to the navigation-bar of
-the Pandas website. The plan is for development of a generic solution that
-can be reused for all Scientific Python website translations.
+Crowdin would then provide a user interface for translators, and updates to
+translations would be pushed to a feature branch, with completed translations
+periodically merged into `main` after given approval by trusted
+language-specific admin's working across the Scientific Python core projects
+participating in the translation program. There will be no need for Pandas
+maintainers to verify the quality of translations.
+
+The result would be a repository containing parallel versions of content from
+pandas.pydata.org, translated into various languages. Translated content could
+then be pulled from this repository during generation of the Pandas website. A
+low friction means of choosing between languages could then be added. Possibly a
+drop-down language selector similar to what now exists for https://numpy.org, or
+simple links similar to what now exists for https://www.sympy.org/en/index.html.
+A developer supported by the "Scientific Python Community & Communications
+Infrastructure grant" could assist with making the changes necessary for the
+Pandas website to support publication of translations.
+
+If desired, a cron job could be set up on the repository containing translated
+content to check for relevant changes or updates to the Pandas website's content
+and pull them if necessary. Translators could then receive a notification from
+Crowdin that there are new strings to translate. This could help with the
+process of keeping translations up to date.
 
 
 ### PDEP History
 
 - 01 February 2024: Initial draft
+- 02 February 2024: First revision