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Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

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Re: Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

#11
post #8

Please, please, please, do not use auto translators to localize your pages. There's nothing worse than an half-assed translation that was obviously made by a machine. Auto-translated sentences are awkward and I feel extremely insulted every time someone chooses to impose this garbage watered-down version of their products on me. Hire a translator or don't localize your site.

> half-assed translation that was obviously made by a machine

That's exactly what we want to solve.

Here's the thing:

It turned out, AI translates better than humans when provided with enough correct context. Both macro context, like what the product does, and micro context, like what the component represents on screen and how it relates to other components.

As a result, algorithms extract the needed contextual hints, and a correctly configured LLM model finishes the rest.

Re: Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

#12
How do you deal with specific wording that needs to be used in certain languages (often required for legal topics) or specific brand-related messages that need to be in place without any modifications? Does a developer still have the ability to manually translate certain strings?

Re: Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

#13
post #9
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes good point - I think that was my fault. Localized now :)

I would rethink this decision. Localization requires understanding intent and adjusting terminology to apply non-literal interpretations to convey meaning; this project uses an auto-translator.

Interesting perspective.

Unsure if I communicated it well, but unlike auto-translators such as Google Translate, this project leverages a context-aware LLM to recreate the meaning and intent of the original text in another language.

Re: Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

#14
post #8

Please, please, please, do not use auto translators to localize your pages. There's nothing worse than an half-assed translation that was obviously made by a machine. Auto-translated sentences are awkward and I feel extremely insulted every time someone chooses to impose this garbage watered-down version of their products on me. Hire a translator or don't localize your site.

And just say "sorry" to all the people asking you for translation of your great product ?

Re: Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

#15
post #8

Please, please, please, do not use auto translators to localize your pages. There's nothing worse than an half-assed translation that was obviously made by a machine. Auto-translated sentences are awkward and I feel extremely insulted every time someone chooses to impose this garbage watered-down version of their products on me. Hire a translator or don't localize your site.

Would you literally rather have nothing than a poor translation?

Re: Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

#16
post #12

How do you deal with specific wording that needs to be used in certain languages (often required for legal topics) or specific brand-related messages that need to be in place without any modifications? Does a developer still have the ability to manually translate certain strings?

Hey lukol, that's an exciting problem to solve.

The best solution right now is prompt engineering: turns out, AI can be tuned to provide top quality results with the correct system prompt/few shot setup, and custom prompts can be provided in the compiler config.

Longer term, I want this to never be an issue, and I feel we'll get there together with the help from the open source community!

Re: Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

#17
post #10

Hi, early user here :) Liking the product so far. We just started using the CLI parts for our RN app, with your cloud translations. Few things to put on your roadmap if they aren't on it yet: - Would like it if we could set the model per language. I'm sure you do your best trying to find the best one for each language, but in our experience some of them aren't optimal yet. - Multiple source languages would be cool. E…

Sure Jjani, perhaps our docs could be slightly better! :)

Typically quality changes significantly with the right setup of translation fine-tuning settings, so send me a DM with your current setup and we'll help you out in a couple of minutes.

Alternatively, Lingo.dev CLI is open source and you can give it a try with your own API key/model, and if your preferred provider ID isn't yet supported - pull requests are welcome, let's add it! (adding new providers is pretty simple).

Checking your MCP scenario right now, but meanwhile regarding the keys: they're indeed important and are great ways to give the LLMs another tip regarding the meaning of the label and its intent.

Re: Show HN: Localize React apps without rewriting code

#20
This is great. I have worked at many companies and dealt with i18n many times. It was often half baked and frustrating. Not to mention the annoyance of needing to introduce localization to a project that had none before. I often pondered creating a util to improve this space, but looks like you've done the work already. And using LLMs, injecting into the builds, I think this is a great choice for a problem that can be made more efficient by LLMs in their current state.
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