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Those of you who use version management systems for your technical
publications, and handle alot of translations, what policy for revision
identities do you use regarding source publications & target
publications?
An example from my own version management tool:
When a publication is ready to be translated, the folder is released as,
say, revision a72. The translation work then takes place in a branch
from a72, identified with the translation project name, say P0054. When
the translations are finished, the branch is merged into the main
development line. However, by then the main development line may have
evolved further and may at that time be of Rev. a78. This means that
English manuals of Rev. a72 are indentical to foreign language manuals
of Rev. a78. Not good.
For some time I have tossed with the idea to release translated manuals
from branches, instead of merging the branch into the main development
line. Obviously the branch will need to be merged sooner or later
anyway, to make the algorithm that analyzes differences between source
and target files work properly, but the manuals themselves can very well
be released from the branch.
So, I guess the key issue is what would be a suitable revision identity
for target publications. Obviously it needs to signal that a72 is the
point of departure, but that it differ from a72 regarding language. A
tongue-in-cheek attempt would perhaps be a72bt - "bt" indicated "Babel's
Tower"... :)
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