Re: Volunteering for the zh_CN message translation

Hi all,

Following up on my earlier note, I'm submitting all 28 zh_CN message
catalogs for PostgreSQL 19 in one batch:

https://redmine.postgresql.org/issues/8117

The set covers 12,702 active messages and incorporates the upstream
changes in the Babel 19-branch snapshot retrieved on September 13.

All 28 files pass msgfmt --check --check-format, with no empty or
fuzzy entries. Source-key comparisons and GNU gettext lookup tests
also pass, including plural forms.

The work includes some fable/astra assisted translation, as noted earlier.
Human review and calibration is ongoing on https://pgsql.cc

I'll keep checking accuracy, wording and terminology,
track upstream changes, and post corrections promptly. Follow-up
revisions will go on the same issue with a short change summary.

Complete PO files included:

ecpg-zh_CN.po
ecpglib-zh_CN.po
initdb-zh_CN.po
libpq-zh_CN.po
pg_amcheck-zh_CN.po
pg_archivecleanup-zh_CN.po
pg_basebackup-zh_CN.po
pg_checksums-zh_CN.po
pg_combinebackup-zh_CN.po
pg_config-zh_CN.po
pg_controldata-zh_CN.po
pg_ctl-zh_CN.po
pg_dump-zh_CN.po
pg_resetwal-zh_CN.po
pg_rewind-zh_CN.po
pg_test_fsync-zh_CN.po
pg_test_timing-zh_CN.po
pg_upgrade-zh_CN.po
pg_verifybackup-zh_CN.po
pg_waldump-zh_CN.po
pg_walsummary-zh_CN.po
pgscripts-zh_CN.po
plperl-zh_CN.po
plpgsql-zh_CN.po
plpython-zh_CN.po
pltcl-zh_CN.po
postgres-zh_CN.po
psql-zh_CN.po

Feedback on translation quality and terminology is welcome, especially
from the existing zh_CN maintainers.

Thanks,
Ruohang Feng (Vonng)
rh(at)vonng(dot)com

> 2026年9月11日 下午4:58，rh(at)vonng(dot)com 写道：
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'd like to volunteer for the Simplified Chinese (zh_CN) message
> catalogs, if the project is open to a new translator taking them on.
>
> Briefly: I'm Ruohang Feng (Vonng), a native Chinese speaker, more than
> ten years with PostgreSQL. I maintain pgsql.cc, a full Chinese translation
> of the PostgreSQL documentation for v10 through v20, held together by
> a single glossary so the same English sentence reads the same way
> across versions. I've translated several technical books into Chinese,
> including Designing Data-Intensive Applications and PostgreSQL
> Internals, and I maintain Pigsty, an OSS PostgreSQL distribution.
>
> I've been following the translation tooling discussion Peter started
> around PGConf.dev 2026, and Thom's July note that several catalogs,
> zh_CN among them, are at risk of being dropped from 19. On today's
> 19-branch status table zh_CN is at 66% overall, with nine of
> twenty-eight catalogs above the threshold; postgres is at 61%, psql at
> 75%, libpq at 12%.
>
> Coverage isn't the whole problem. The current zh_CN catalogs appear to
> have been translated against a much older baseline, and they carry a
> fair number of outright errors, several of them reported on this list
> this year, plus terminology that varies between files and sometimes
> within a single file.
>
> I've set up a translation and proofreading workflow for the message at
>
> https://pgsql.cc/nls,
>
> and a first-pass base version of the 19 catalogs is already in place.
>
> To be explicit about what that is: it is LLM-translated by fable & astra,
> generated against the same glossary that backs the pg cn doc site.
> It is working material, and I would not submit it as it stands.
>
> Once I have a go-ahead, that base goes through a full human review --
> every message checked by hand against the English original and the
> current translation -- and only the reviewed, msgfmt-clean result is
> sent to this list. That review is the bulk of the work, which is why
> I'm asking before starting it rather than afterwards.
>
> Two ways I could go from here:
>
> 1. Full overhaul. I take the whole of zh_CN through that review, keep
> what's good in the existing translations, and submit complete PO
> files in time for 19. This is what I'd prefer: most of the
> inconsistency is cross-file, and one pass against a fixed glossary
> fixes it in a way incremental patches won't.
>
> 2. Minimal fixes. I fill in the untranslated messages and correct the
> clear errors, and leave everything else as it stands.
>
> Either is fine by me -- I'd rather follow whatever the project prefers
> to review. If this sounds workable, a few things I'd need to know:
>
> - Is anyone already working on zh_CN that I should coordinate with?
> - Should corrections be back-patched to the supported branches
> (18 and earlier), or is it better to keep everything on 19?
> - What's the cutoff for getting updates into 19?
>
> If it's easier to judge from a sample, I can send one reviewed catalog first.
>
> Thanks,
> Ruohang Feng (Vonng)
> rh(at)vonng(dot)com
>
>
>