[texhax] Has anyone created bilingual translations with a tex package.

[Tom Schneider]

> >>>>> "Craig" == W Craig Carter <ccarter at mit.edu> writes:
> 
>     Craig> I am about to start a translation project and am wondering
>     Craig> if someone else has done something similar.
> 
>     Craig> You might have seen bilingual translations where, say,
>     Craig> english appears on the odd (left-hand-leaf) and , say, the
>     Craig> translated french appears on the even (right-hand-leaf).
>     Craig> The pages match up so that a reader can check their
>     Craig> abilities to translate.
> 
>     Craig> I'd like to do a similar project, with the addition of
>     Craig> extra material such as figures and equations and
>     Craig> references, of having an original and my translation show
>     Craig> up side-by-side.
> 
> One way of doing this might be as follows:
> 
> 1. Create a pdf of your English version.
> 
> 2. Create another pdf of your French version with same classes and
>    packges. 
> 
> 3. Now create a document, say 'print.tex':
>  
>    \documentclass{article}
>    \usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
> 
>    \def\totalpages{<n>} % number of pages of any one of your version + 1
> 
>    \newcounter{xpage}
> 
>    \def\Include#1#2{%
>    \loop\stepcounter{xpage}
>    \ifnum\thexpage<\totalpages  
>    \includepdf[pages=\thexpage,pagecommand={\thispagestyle{plain}}]{#1}
>    \includepdf[pages=\thexpage,pagecommand={\thispagestyle{plain}}]{#2}
>    \repeat}
> 
>   \begin{document}
> 
>   \Include{english.pdf}{french.pdf}
> 
>   \end{document}
> 
> 4. Run pdflatex over this print.tex, you will get print.pdf which
>    should have English pages and corresponding French pages repeating
>    alternatively. 
> 
> This has worked for me very well. It might be better, if your
> language versions of document do not have any page numbers, because
> you can have continuous page numbers inserted by \pagecommand in the
> composite one.
> 
> Best.
> 
> Radhakrishnan

It seems to me that this is not a good solution.  For one thing, the
two language parts are separated which would make comparisons inside
the editor more difficult.  Secondly, it requires a lot of external
mechanisms.

It would seem that a better solution would be to define some
functions.  Something like floating text:

The first sentence.

\translate{The first sentence in the other language.}

The second sentence.

\translate{The second sentence in the other language.}

Then define translate to be a float that floats to the next page.

\clearpage % trigger dropping of all the translations
\clearpage % jump to next page to continue ...

Though I'm not familar with the syntax (someone else can help!)
programming it like this would make it \emph{really} easy
for the translator!

Tom

  Dr. Thomas D. Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Experimental and Computational Biology
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  toms at ncifcrf.gov
  permanent email: toms at alum.mit.edu (use only if first address fails)
  http://www.lecb.ncifcrf.gov/~toms/