Edward Diener wrote:
I do not think you can seriously argue that 'translation' from language X to language Y is more correct if it must go from language X to language E to language Y.
Translation from N source languages to M target languages requires O(M*N) resources, whereas translation from N source languages to E to M targets requires O(M+N) resources. Similarly, if you have a world with N languages, absent a universal second language E, people need to learn N languages to be able to communicate, and 2 if there exists an agreed-upon E. This is why we are writing in E in this very mailing list. In theory, it's more correct to translate from X to Y, but in practice, it's hard to find people who are simultaneously fluent enough in X software terminology and Y software terminology to be able to produce a high quality translation. And in any event, the fact that the source texts are in E shouldn't preclude your translating from X to Y. You just take the translation text file for X which is basically a list of (E phrase, X phrase) pairs, and translate the X phrases to Y phrases. This requires no E knowledge on your part.