Hello,
This is my 15th contribution to Node.js. I’m currently translating this project into Spanish, along with an awesome group of translators and moderators from Utopian + Da Vinci, we are doing our best to do everything correctly. If you are interested in open-source projects, I encourage you to keep reading.
I’m proud to say we have successfully translated 23% of the project on Crowdin!
Repository
https://github.com/nodejs/i18n
Project Details
Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript run-time environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a browser. It achieves low latency and high throughput by taking a “non-blocking” approach to serving requests. Basically, Node.js can open, create, read, write, close and delete files on a server, using JavaScript. It also includes tasks that will be executed on certain servers.
I know it can be a bit confusing at first, so let me explain it to you in simpler words:
Let’s say you want to build a software to keep record of your company’s earnings. A feature where viewing your monthly earnings is updated live can be very useful. In that way, if one of your sales employees is busy, another employee could still be seeing the updates live, without reloading the page.
This has been done before using another technologies. However, Node.js is way faster and better. So, yes it is the best option for developers who want to build real-time applications where both the server and the client can exchange data freely with no restrictions.
Contribution Specifications
Being such an important project, Node.js is being translated to several languages so it can reach many people around the world. As it for me, I am contributing to the Spanish language.
Translation Overview
During this contribution I continued working on buffer.md on v6. The Spanish team started to translate Node’s files of the v10, now we’re progressively moving to the version 6 of this awesome project. Since I’m not a guru in computer science I had to read a lot before I could feel confident enough to translate the content of this folder.
buffer.md talks about the Buffer class and all of its functions inside Node.js. I translated the sections: new Buffer(arrayBuffer[, byteOffset [, length]]), new Buffer(size), new Buffer(string[, encoding]), Class Method: Buffer.alloc(size[, fill[, encoding]]), Class Method: Buffer.allocUnsafe(size), and Class Method: Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(size).
This is my third time working on the same folder. I’ve learned a lot about the purpose of this class and the effect it has on Node.
In my previous contribution I explained how streams are basically a sequence of data (normally bytes) being moved from one point to another over time. Binary data is the only type of data that can be executed by a computer and it’s represented in combinations of ones and zeros. And a Buffer is a portion of the memory that stores a stream that's then collected and stored in variables inside the same Buffer.
So the Buffer class is basically a “waiting area” for information! When Node.js receives data that’s not ready to be processed yet it will send it to the Buffer and store it there until it’s ready.
This time the text talked a lot about “memory allocation”, that is a process by which a computer reserves a complete or partial portion of the memory for the execution of application programs and other processes.
At one point it also mentions the concept “garbage collection”, which is a recovery system that identifies dead memory blocks and reallocates storage for reuse. It is an automatic memory management function used by many programming languages, such as the one we are more interested about here, yes you guessed it, JavaScript.
Another interesting thing I learned this time is that the word “pool” in terms of computer science refers to a set of resources, such as objects or file handles, that are reserved to be used within a software.
These are the web pages I read if you’re interested: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Here are some translation samples:
English:
Unlike [ArrayBuffers][ArrayBuffer], the underlying memory for Buffer instances created in this way is not initialized. The contents of a newly created Buffer are unknown and could contain sensitive data.
Spanish:
A diferencia de [ArrayBuffers][ArrayBuffer], la memoria subyacente para instancias de Buffer creadas de esta forma no es inicializada. Los contenidos de un Buffer recién creado son desconocidos y podrían contener datos sensibles.
English:
The optional byteOffset and length arguments specify a memory range within the arrayBuffer that will be shared by the Buffer.
Spanish:
Los argumentos opcionales byteOffset y length especifican un rango de memoria dentro del arrayBuffer que será compartido por el Buffer.
Since the text is related to computer science it is very important to do some research before translating a word if you are not sure about its meaning. As a matter of fact, some words were left untranslated on purpose, otherwise, their true meaning would be lost in the translation.
Languages
Source Language: English
Translated Language: Spanish
I have worked as a translator for the project Da Vinci Polyglot and I am currently working as a language moderator for the Utopian + Da Vinci translation category.
And of course, I am part of the Spanish team!
Word Count
I translated 1045 words on this contribution.
