APITranslation

I (Tango) am going to start the ball rolling in an attempt to translate the RobocodeAPI into different languages. I will do it by making classes like GermanRobot? which extends TeamRobot, and so on. The class should be included in the jar of your robots, otherwise it won't work on other peoples computers. I think that means it needs to be in the same package, so the package will have to be changed when you download it.

I don't have the knowledge to do this all myself, so i will do the java, but i need people to give me the translations. To do this, copy /Template to a page like /German? or /French?, etc. and (start) fill(ing) it in.

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Comments:

I have to ask. Why would such a translation be necessary in the first place? -- PEZ

I don't think that the language is such a great barrier. Java is spoken here. Making pages with french/german/japanese/portuguese will only make the diffs greater. Wakarimas? -- Axe

Some people on the Repository forums seem rather adament that translations are a good thing. As long as they are willing to help, i'll put it together and it might make them happy. It might also bring them over to the wiki, which would be a good thing. -- Tango

But the wiki is 99.997% English. If people can't understand the few english keywords used in the Robocode API, then how would the wiki in general be of any help to them? I think these people would be better helped if we wrote some API introduction pages in the languages in question. The BeginnersFAQ could be translated too I guess. This is just my theory of course. And nothing prevents us from doing both I guess. -- PEZ

Translating the Robocode API Documentation to other languages would be a good thing, but I can't see how a GermanBot? would be useful, considering that once you know what a method does, you don't care about its name meaning. -- Albert

I agree with you, but the germans don't, for some reason. I suggest we have this discussion on the Repository forums, where they can give us their reasons. -- Tango

If u think that this would help, indeed it's a good thing. But what about the entire rest of the Java API? R they translating it too?(I have to say that this still smells to me like local pride). -- Axe

I'm inclined to agree, but i can't be bothered to argue, so i i'll do my bit to help, if they are willing to do theirs. -- Tango

Of course, Tango, you're English if I'm not mistaken, so maybe leaving it in English is national pride. -- Kawigi

I'm sure there is an element of that, but English is the international language, english is the language the Java API is in, english is the language the robocode GUI is in, english is the language most of the resources are in, etc, etc, etc. -- Tango

Yeah, which means you achieve very little with creating a GermanBot?. Use your time to create a killer bot instead. =) -- PEZ

a) i doubt anyone will give me the translations anyway, so i don't have to do anything, but still look like i've tried. b) it shouldn't take long once i've got the translations. c) i don't seem to be that good when it comes to killer bots. ;-) -- Tango

Spend some more time on c and you will eventually create one. Start with a killer movement and just use a random lead gun. I think this can take a bot to the top-40 at least. We should ask iiley to release a Lacrimas with random lead targeting and see if I'm right. -- PEZ