Localizing Astah – Chinese version(simplified) is now available!

Thanks to Abbey, now GUI in Astah Community can be shown in Chinese.

As Abbey created Chinese one, anyone can create ones for your language (Portuguese, Spanish, German..etc : See how to do so in GUI Localization page)

I asked Abbey how the translation process was like to him and why he made a Chinese translation file etc.

Satomi (S):  Thank you Abbey for creating this Chinese translation files. Before we start, could you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Abbey (A):  I am a software architect in a small company and our products concentrate on C/S application like HIS, ERP, OA and so on. I live with my parents, wife and two cute children in Sichuan in China.

S:  So do you use Astah at your work?

A : Actually no. We use other tool that our company chose. It has good import/export features but is actually poor to support the express template parameters. Font and color settings are rough and it always has bugs.. I am using Astah Community as my personal tool because it is free, lightweight and offers basic features I need. Since I’ve become a member of Friends of Astah and  received a free license, I am now trying the Astah Professional.

S:  Okay, hope you like Astah’s template parameters and font settings. Then what made you decide to make a Chinese Translation?

A : Months ago, one of my friends asked me for a training of UML of his teammates. I chose Astah Community as the demonstrating tool. Later they asked me if there’s a Chinese edition but there is none, so I decided to make one by myself.

S:  That’s great. How was the experience of making translation? Was it easy? Any problems you encountered?

A : Hardest part was to make a Chinese UML glossary because there is no unified glossary of UML in Chinese. So what I did first was to create English-Chinese glossary table by researching some resources. Step two was to create git repository for the translation files and then last step was to prepare some snacks. Not a problem but testing the translation files was a boring process to be honest, I had to find an editor which can export text in escaped ASCII format. Then run Astah and record every point in-translated over and over..

S:  Oh, that sounds a lot of work. We’ll find a better way for users to create translation files easier. But after you’ve made the translation, did it help people you are teaching UML to?

A : Yes, now it is much easier for them to understand what I am teaching in the class.

S:  Wonderful! Actually we receive many requests for Chinese edition, so  your work will help a lot of Chinese users. So thank you very much for your effort & contribution! At last, I always ask this question.. what is your passion?

A : Photography and soccer! As a game player, I love the WoW after the Lich King was defeated.

S: It is always to have something you like beside your job.  At last I remember that you mentioned that you’d make a tool to update your translation files?

A: Yes. I will make one to pick out all the differences in the properties files between versions and also export them in specified format directly. Maybe, it should support Git,,, I think.

S: Wonderful. We have our new release planned already in January. So hopefully you could make one to make it easier to keep translation files updated with new versions accordingly! Thank you so much again, Abbey.