LibreOffice in Persian

l10n
#1

Hello,

My name is Farzaneh Sarafraz. I started the OO.o fa_IR project, created the
locale data, and made the first complete Persian builds. I also managed a
team of volunteers who at the time created the Persian localisation pages. I
also drafted Iran's "no" vote against OOXML in 2007.

I have been maintaining the project since 2005, although the project was
less active recently as there haven't been as many volunteers and I became
rather busy with my postgraduate research.

However, I believe I could still spend some time coordinating and
contributing to the LibreOffice Persian project. I won't have as much time,
but I have experience coordinating other L10n projects (including VLC and
Gimp). I was asked to take over the Gnome fa_IR project a couple of weeks
ago, but thought if I only have time for one of the two, it would be
LibreOffice.

Anyway, hello everyone! It's good to be back.

Fa.

#2

Hi,

We already have a homepage at fa.openoffice.org. I also have a local full
recent backup of the data there. Thanks, Hossein for showing interest in the
fa_IR project, but I think you should put a link to the page we already have
rather than a non-existing external personal (?) page.

I'll fix it for now until we move the page over to libreoffice.

Farzaneh.

#3

Hi,

Thanks for your attention, but I'm really against giving the coordination of
this project to Mrs. Sarafraz and FarsiWeb Inc., the company that took over
fa.openoffice.org and did nothing within 6 years, from 2005 until now, near
end of 2010.

Some time in 2005, Meelad Zakaria, a member of Farsiweb ltd. requested for
adding Persian locale for OpenOffice.
http://native-lang.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=dev&msgNo=4443
I asked Meelad to add me to the project, so I could contribute in localizing
OpenOffice.org, About 1 month after receiving my message, he just added me
as an observer. I sent him other messages regarding the status of the
project, and I asked him "what he'll do", but I couldn't get an appropriate
answer from him. After a lot of effort, and warnings from OpenOffice guys
because of locking the project, he added me as a developer.

Some time later, I saw the Persian localized version of Linux from Farsiweb
ltd. that contained Persian OpenOffice.org.
http://www.farsiweb.ir/wiki/Main_Page
It seems that Meelad registered as the project leader of OpenOffice.org, and
then stopped the job, because they wanted their Persian version of
OpenOffice.org to be unique.
Now, after about 6 years, you see no progress in the project.

After that, I decided to devote my time on fixing i18n bugs (my username is
"h15n" there), and I think my efforts was helpful for OO.o users. Fixing
problems with justified Persian
text<http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=28203>,
and including context shaping of
numbers<http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=98418>,
was vital for the real world usage of OpenOffice, and I'm happy to continue
spending my time on it<http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=100940>.
Please tell me one useful thing that FarsiWeb did during past 6 years,
rather than locking the project?

Please note that farsilinux.ir is not a personal website. I registered this
domain, for the sole purpose of localization of open source software,
including LibreOffice. Please don't point to fa.openoffice.org, as it's just
a 2 page Persian translation of some pages from English OOo which was copied
after a lot of questions raised about FarsiWeb policies. Copying those 2
pages won't take a lot of time.

I don't want to continue this talk, but if it's needed, I can forward my
communications with guys at OpenOffice.org for further insight on FarsiWeb
policies against contribution of interested people. They just sign up as the
project owner and disappear.

I'm currently a PhD. candidate at computer department of Amirkabir
University of Technonlogy <http://ceit.aut.ac.ir>, and I've spent many years
on development of localized Persian software. Because of this, I think I can
handle the coordination of this project. Furthermore, I have no plan to use
my position as a way to gain financial benefits. In fact, I really care
about this project, as I've spent a lot of time for it before.

I've talked to some members of fa.openoffice.org before planing to be the
coordinator of the Persian localization of LibreOffice and they are also
against making FarsiWeb the coordinator. I've started working on
farsilinux.ir, and I think soon we'll have a great place where we can
welcome anyone (even FarsiWeb guys) who wants to contribute to LibreOffice.

Hossein

#4

Hello Hossein,

Perhaps you could work together? I believe the Persian Native-Language
Project of OpenOffice.org led by Farsiweb was the first native-lang
community to support LibreOffice the very day of its opening :slight_smile:

Also we do tend to acknowledge past contributions in the OpenOffice.org
project.

Pootle Admins:
I would strongly suggest Farzaneh gets her Pootle
account.

Best,
Charles.

#5

Hi,

Unfortunately I have not been one of the "FarsiWeb people" for three years
now, although I am proud to have ever worked with the team. My work for
OpenOffice was voluntary although I benefited from the expertise within
FarsiWeb and the OO.o community at the time.

It is unfortunate if Meelad has been less than responsive, and I can't be
held responsible for his actions. All I can say that FarsiWeb always had an
open and inclusive approach to contribution from volunteers.

Thanks Charlse, and I do believe Hossein and I could and should work
together as well as with the other volunteers. I am already looking forward
to it.

Bests,
Farzaneh (not Mrs.)

#6

Dear Charles,

To be honest, I have no problem with cooperation, but project history has
shown that this is not the case. I want to translate, code, and bug hunt
without thinking about management issues, but when I see the current
management forbids any progress, I think I should be bold and say what I
know.

I suggest you to see what Farsiweb guys did at Ubuntu Launchpad, which has a
translation tool called Rosetta. Me and others started translating there,
but after a while, a guy from Farsiweb who was the owner of the
localization project, removed other members and forced all the translations
to be marked as suggestions, and they were never incorporated in the main
translations.
This created a lot of criticism from members of technotux, a major Persian
language linux community:

http://www.technotux.org/html/PNphpBB2-posting-mode-topicreview-t-15849.html(in
Persian)

Former members (of Ubuntu-fa team)
These are the members whose subscriptions have expired, or were deactivated
by themselves or by a team administrator.
Name Joined in Status
Abbas Esmaeeli 2006-09-06 Deactivated
Amir Masoud Parvanian 2006-06-28 Deactivated
Bianux 2006-09-01 Deactivated
hadi farnoud 2006-03-15 Deactivated
Hamed Zaghaghi 2006-08-24 Deactivated
Hossein Noorikhah 2006-07-14 Deactivated
Jalal Rohani 2006-08-20 Deactivated
Kaveh Mousavi Zamani 2006-06-24 Deactivated
Kia Teymourian 2006-09-16 Deactivated
Moein Alinaghian 2006-07-02 Deactivated
Reza Mohammadi 2006-08-12 Deactivated
sadegh 2006-09-19 Deactivated

I think these kind of policies does not create any progress.

Perhaps you could work together? I believe the Persian Native-Language

Project of OpenOffice.org led by Farsiweb was the first native-lang
community to support LibreOffice the very day of its opening

*As I remember, I was the guy who promised to work on Persian localization
at LibreOffice IRC, on the opening day. Don't you remember "Hossein"?*

Also we do tend to acknowledge past contributions in the OpenOffice.org

project.

That seems reasonable, but there is nothing as the contribution to the
project, by FarsiWeb. They just locked the project for 6 years, and I'm
afraid that the same thing will happen for LibreOffice. I don't want to wait
6 or 10 years from now to see a localized version of LibreOffice.

Why did you forked OpenOffice? The very same reason holds for Persian team
of OpenOffice, who no longer want to be under supervision of a group that
blocks contributions from people, and does not care about the project.

If this is not enough, I can forward you my communications with OpenOffice
guys.

Hossein

#7

Hi,

I have never been involved with Ubuntu development. I don't know who you are
talking about, but in the list you shared, I see my friend and former
colleague, Reza Mohammadi, who is now a part of the FarsiTel team. Are you
sure you are not mistaking me with someone else?

I am glad to see that Hossein is so keen to contribute. It will hopefully
mean that we will have a more active team. I am only hoping that we don't
let the quality drop, stick to standards, and have more inclusive approach
to volunteers.

I haven't looked at his contributions, but I am sure we could work together
and discuss should a disagreement occur.

Cheers,
Farzaneh.

#8

Oh LALA,
guys, this is very simple: just contribute libreoffice. If we've got problem
then we can do something. This is a New era in Office.

#9

maybe you can have a voting to find someone as leader?

#10

Hi,

As I wrote earlier: you are all going to contribute to LibreOffice. How
about that? :slight_smile:

thanks Mostafa,

Charles.

#11

+1 :slight_smile:

#12

Hi,
Ok. Let's go straight to the job and discuss these issues later. :slight_smile: