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How to count words in php, should include all the codes?
Thread poster: Jenny Lu
Jenny Lu
Jenny Lu  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 13:59
English to Chinese
+ ...
Nov 7, 2005

Sure, it's not about technical issue at all, but a business concern. As we know, we only need to translate the part between "", but what about the other parts? should we include them as well in the word count?

If it is common practice to count all the words in the php file, what should we do when we come across a client who insists in not counting the "untranslated" parts?
 
Andy Lemminger
Andy Lemminger  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 23:59
Member (2002)
English to German
No code Nov 7, 2005

Hi Jenny,

I've never worked with any client who adds the code to the wordcount.
But I wouldn't be opposed to it

Andy
www.interlations.com
 
Mario Cerutti
Mario Cerutti  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 14:59
Italian to Japanese
+ ...
Not needed to translate the code Nov 8, 2005

Jenny Lu wrote:

Sure, it's not about technical issue at all, but a business concern. As we know, we only need to translate the part between "", but what about the other parts? should we include them as well in the word count?

If it is common practice to count all the words in the php file, what should we do when we come across a client who insists in not counting the "untranslated" parts?


Hi Jenny,

As you said, it's not necessary to translate the code in PHP files, on the contrary you shouldn't touch it if you don't want to mess it up all. The only part that you might need to translate are the various messages to the user, if any, the comments introduced by the original programmer that are normally useful to those who will review/update the PHP file later on, and possibily update links to other pages.

As far as I know, there is no software available today that can automatically count the translatable part of PHP files. and therefore I would recommend to offer a forfait rate to your customer based on the time it will take to you to process *and test* all PHP files after they are uploaded to the server.

Kind regards

Mario Cerutti
http://www.aliseo.com

[Edited at 2005-11-08 06:17]

[Edited at 2005-11-08 06:17]
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 07:59
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
No charge for code, but higher rate for expertise Nov 8, 2005

Jenny Lu wrote:
If it is common practice to count all the words in the php file, what should we do when we come across a client who insists in not counting the "untranslated" parts?


The reason you charge per word is simply because it's an easy way to determine a "fair" rate for the job based on the size of the job. Therefore the word rate should include words which you must check and/or translate, but not all words if some words need no checking. You should know which words or codes should not be translated, and that should be reflected in your higher rate for this type of job, but it wouldn't be fair to either party if you were to charge for the codes as if they were part of the text.
 


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How to count words in php, should include all the codes?







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