40 votes

Firefox 135.0 supports translating Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean webpages locally

11 comments

  1. talklittle
    Link
    This is great if I'm viewing a detailed publication, or say a video game company's or a musician's homepage, and it's in one of those languages, and now I can translate directly in Firefox...

    This is great if I'm viewing a detailed publication, or say a video game company's or a musician's homepage, and it's in one of those languages, and now I can translate directly in Firefox locally. Very happy with this addition!

    13 votes
  2. [3]
    stu2b50
    Link
    I'm surprised it doesn't handle traditional, it's mostly a character set swap, so you could even implement it as just mapping the characters to simplified then running the translation.

    I'm surprised it doesn't handle traditional, it's mostly a character set swap, so you could even implement it as just mapping the characters to simplified then running the translation.

    5 votes
    1. [2]
      creesch
      Link Parent
      Could be that devil is in the details of that "mostly '

      Could be that devil is in the details of that "mostly '

      2 votes
      1. sparksbet
        Link Parent
        Going from traditional to simplified is the area where it's pretty doable though -- most of the confusing cases are from going the other way iirc.

        Going from traditional to simplified is the area where it's pretty doable though -- most of the confusing cases are from going the other way iirc.

        2 votes
  3. [3]
    priw8
    Link
    I'm curious to see how these translations compare to more established engines such as google translate. I've seen machine-translated Chinese be... Not the best in the past, so I wonder if perhaps...

    I'm curious to see how these translations compare to more established engines such as google translate. I've seen machine-translated Chinese be... Not the best in the past, so I wonder if perhaps it's better now.

    And of course, pretty awesome that it's done locally! I wonder if it can be manually used outside of the browser?

    4 votes
    1. Minori
      Link Parent
      If it's anything like Japanese, it's still rough around the edges. DeepL and Google Translate are decent, but even human translators have to make a lot of assumptions based on context.

      If it's anything like Japanese, it's still rough around the edges. DeepL and Google Translate are decent, but even human translators have to make a lot of assumptions based on context.

      4 votes
    2. sparksbet
      Link Parent
      Machine-translated Chinese has definitely improved leaps and bounds since I started studying the language ten years ago. Firefox's translations are definitely a bit weaker than DeepL's for German,...

      Machine-translated Chinese has definitely improved leaps and bounds since I started studying the language ten years ago. Firefox's translations are definitely a bit weaker than DeepL's for German, but usually they're still sufficiently understandable (though the instance where it translated "Husten stillen" as "breastfeed a cough" was pretty funny). DeepL is perfectly serviceable for Chinese but definitely weaker than it is for German, so I'll have to try to see how well it does in practice.

      2 votes
  4. [4]
    Pistos
    Link
    ... but Windows users don't deserve this? smirk Oh wait, I guess that could also be interpreted as "Windows users have had this for a while, but now Mac and Linux users can have it, too".

    Users on macOS and Linux are now given the option to close only the current tab if the Quit keyboard shortcut is used while multiple tabs are open in the window.

    ... but Windows users don't deserve this? smirk

    Oh wait, I guess that could also be interpreted as "Windows users have had this for a while, but now Mac and Linux users can have it, too".

    2 votes
    1. [3]
      Minori
      Link Parent
      The quit application command is specific to Linux and Mac, so I'm a little confused by your comment. There are already hot keys to close windows and tabs (CTRL+W or CMND+ W).

      The quit application command is specific to Linux and Mac, so I'm a little confused by your comment. There are already hot keys to close windows and tabs (CTRL+W or CMND+ W).

      5 votes
      1. [2]
        Pistos
        Link Parent
        Honestly, putting your and my comments together, I think I am exponentially more confused now. I don't know a soul who uses Mac or Linux who would try to use Cmd/Ctrl Q to close a tab. And: when...

        Honestly, putting your and my comments together, I think I am exponentially more confused now.

        I don't know a soul who uses Mac or Linux who would try to use Cmd/Ctrl Q to close a tab. And: when I'm on Windows, I use Ctrl-W to close individual tabs, and would never expect it to close the entire app (except maybe if it were the last tab left).

        1 vote
        1. Minori
          Link Parent
          I guess someone wanted the option for CMND+Q to close a tab. I can't imagine why, but sure why not I guess?

          I guess someone wanted the option for CMND+Q to close a tab. I can't imagine why, but sure why not I guess?

          1 vote