Some common sense rules, perhaps. 1. No one person can produce a solution to fit everyone.
2. The translation teams / translators should try as far as possible to maintain the meaning of the original. Sentence structure / paragraphing / layout / punctuation will vary from language to language. Let the translators find the "official" rules for layout for their language - tell people where they can be found - and stick to them. 3. If there are two or more authoritative rule sets e.g. for British/American/Canadian/Australian English [I don't know whether this is true - but it probably is] seek to come to an international consensus. The standard British English text is Hart's Rules for Compositors (as used by Oxford University Press and the Oxford English dictionary). This also includes elementary typesetting rules for other languages but does not claim to be authoritative for Spanish/Russian/Afrikaans etc. 4. The maintainer of the package should accept translations bona fide. If there is a disagreement as to the text of the translation or its sense or meaning - refer it back to the translators _first_ then argue afterwards. I speak as someone who can type badly in three languages and understand the sense of a few more. I can compose a relatively grammatical sentence in French/Spanish but wouldn't dream of translating into those languages without a native speaker looking over what I wrote. I'm happy to talk about the technical meaning of English terms, English grammar or spelling - but I'm only one native speaker and can't claim authority. Experienced translation teams (such as the one of which Martin Quinson forms so distinguished [A a part) should not be disregarded lightly. Just my 0.02 Euro :) Andy [Sorry about the typo - using mail as mutt has just died on me :) ]
