Subversion (SVN) is a software versioning and revision control system that developers use to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation.
Subversion relates to i18n in the following ways.
- Source Code Management: Subversion allows developers to manage and control the different versions of the source code. This is particularly important in i18n, where developers might be dealing with multiple versions of the software for different languages or regions.
- Collaboration: Subversion can help in the collaboration process during i18n. Teams working on different aspects of i18n (like localization engineers, translators, and developers) can work concurrently using SVN. Everyone can be working on different parts of the project at the same time without overwriting each other’s changes.
- Tracking Changes: SVN allows developers to track changes made in the source code over time. This is particularly helpful during i18n, where tracking changes can help identify when and where a localization or translation error was introduced.
- Maintaining Language Files: In i18n, different language versions of the software are often stored in separate resource files. Subversion can help manage these files, keep them synchronized with the source code, and ensure that all versions of the software are updated consistently whenever changes are made.
Remember, though; SVN is a tool to aid the process of i18n—it doesn’t inherently handle i18n tasks, but it can be a crucial part of the i18n workflow in a software development environment.