Tuesday, May 27, 2008

First Meeting - More Direction!

Went and had a meeting with my supervisor today to try and get my head around the topic a bit further.

The issue I had was that I had done some introductory research and could already see some solutions to the problem and wasn't really sure how I could come up with my own unique solution.

At present, any Spring based java app has to have the XML hardcoded by language. This means that the coder has to develop the translation or a translator gets sent the XML but isn't able to see the components in the context of the site. There is no actual UI in place.

A contrasting solution is that of ACS-Lang where the site has a 'translator mode' and the text can be marked up live via the web. This solution also allows for comments which can be useful to handle context.

An example is that someone might translate the French for 'partner' to English 'mate' and whilst accurate most Australians would probably misinterpret the meaning. The comment ability provides the ability for feedback.

Ultimately I need to build a Spring solution UI that provides similar functionalties to the OpenACS solution.

Result of meeting:

Sunday, May 25, 2008

First Blog Entry! - Intro Meeting

This blog will be used to track progress on my 4th year Engineering Thesis (ELEC4707) @ USYD.


RAC7. Internationalization and translation management for Java applications

The goal of the project is to investigate approaches where a web application developed with the Spring framework can be internationalized, and a translation interface provided. The system would allow a team of translators to collaborate in a fashion similar to the openACS translation project.


Supervisor:
Dr Rafael Calvo (USYD)

Introductory Meeting
I had a meeting, 22nd May 08, in SIT with Dr Calvo and the other students that he is supervising.

The meeting was basically an introduction and to stimulate some thought on the development cycle of the thesis since most students will probably be focused on the current semester and the upcoming exams for the next few weeks. Once those are out of the way it's game on for sure!

Dr Calvo provided us with a copy of a chapter from a book that will provide useful in actually writing the thesis.

"How to write a better thesis" 2nd Ed, David Evans & Paul Gruba, Melbourne Univ. Press, 2002

The key take away from the meeting was that most of the thesis problems are not going to be new problems. Someone else will have conducted work in the area before. The important part of the thesis is that you can contribute something to the solution, that you can show the work that others have done and then proudly state "and this is my contribution", "this is my little piece of the puzzle".

So from here I will organise a meeting with Dr Calvo so I can discuss the direction the thesis will take.

Next Official Deliverable:
Friday 1st August -> Hand in Project Plan (Basically Chapter 1)