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Translating XML-based documents: using XML technology to reduce the cost of authoring and translation.

Article Excerpt
Xml:tm is an XML namespace-based technology designed to substantially reduce the costs of translating XML documents while at the same time providing the architecture to build consistent authoring systems, xml:tm is an open standard maintained by XML-Intl for the benefit of those involved in the translation of XML documents.

The advent of text in electronic format posed a number of problems for translators. These problems were:

1. How to manage the differing encoding standards and their corresponding font support and availability

2. How to present the text to translators without having to purchase additional copies of the original creation program

3. How to translate the text while preserving the formatting

4. How to build translation memories for these documents to reduce the cost of translation and improve consistency

The problem was exacerbated by the veritable "Tower of Babel" of differing authoring and composition environments, from Interleaf to PageMaker. The typical approach was to write filters that would "lift" the text to be translated from its proprietary embedded environment and to present it to translators in a uniform but equally proprietary translation environment. After translation the text would then be merged with the original document, replacing the source language text.

ISO 8879:1986 SGML

A serious attempt to tackle the plethora of competing formats and their embedded nature was made in 1986 with the advent of ISO 8879 Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The aim of ISO 8879 was to separate the content of documents from their form. SGML arose at a time of great and rapid change in the IT industry. The architects attempted to make the standard as flexible and open to change as possible. This laudable aim unfortunately produced something that was very difficult and expensive to implement. In addition, SGML tackled only the aspect of content. Form was tackled by ISO/IEC 10179:1996 Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL), but this proved equally difficult to implement.

HTML

The efforts of the ISO 8879 committee were not in vain. SGML allowed for the creation of HTML, which enabled the World Wide Web to catapult the Internet from...