I'm quite happy with your plan vocx.
Couple of details, mostly repeating what Normand says:
- Indeed translation is a delicate matter. The system we use on the wiki is far from perfect, but it's basically the only translation plugin that works well, and we should indeed reserve templates mostly for when it's translation-independent (like {{KEY}}, etc), or only when it's absolutely needed.
vocx wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:29 am
I am not sure how good the PDF version of the documentation is. Is this created entirely from the wiki?
This is something we tried at early stages, but it's definitely not practical, our wiki has evolved to a point it cannot be represented linearly anymore. I would 1) concentrate on keeping the manual linear. The manual would be the only part that gets converted to PDF. 2) Some pages of the wiki could be included in the PDF, but they would be pulled by some other structure. The navigation system shouldn't be used anyway.
vocx wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:29 am
I am not sure what to do with the application programming interface documentation
I'm not sure either. I'd be more in favor of keeping the small examples inside the wiki pages, but for the general API pages and all the rest use the doxygen one, which we definitely must make look better and clearer. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to get to the same result as the current API pages of the wiki.
vocx wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:29 am
I suppose in the past workbenches were called "modules".
A module is an application extension (we're talking about code, basically). A workbench is a special functionality of FreeCAD. Most of the FreeCAD modules also define a workbench with the same name, but not all (the Addon Manager is an example of a module that doesn't define a workbench).
I would suggest, in the wiki, to use the word "Workbench" everywhere it is possible, which will be 99% of the cases. It makes more sense for the user. That is basically what we've been doing for some time. We should check what still links to the _Module pages but I guess it's not much. I'd be in favor of fixing what's still _Module, but if you do so please also crawl through the existing translations and fix them accordingly (when possible, that is. Sometimes it requires someone to really know the language)
vocx wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:29 am
I think each tool should be named in a reasonable manner, like [Workbench]_[Tool].
As Normand pointed out, the page naming should follow what's defined in the FreeCAD source code so the "what's this?" system works. Note that it is always possible to change things in the source code too if needed.
About redirections, some love them, some hate them

I don't have a strong opinion on this, but indeed the practicality of translations should really be considered there.
As Normand says, very few people do all the hard work on the wiki, most of them are in this thread and the other. Translators are also very sparse and tend to do big amount of work during a few weeks then disappear forever. So we should take some care to, as much as possible, not destroy the work they've been doing, so others are encouraged to extend it. On the other hand, I think the work you are proposing is very welcome, and indeed it will require a few groundwork changes. So it would be a for you to assess and limit these heavy changes as much as possible.
Generally speaking about your proposal, I think your plan is good, very sound, and to me worth the money and I think we should do it. I would propose to assess your work for example after 3 weeks and after 6 weeks, to make sure everybody is happy about it.
I'll ask the opinion of the most active community members privately, but anyone is free to give his/her opinion here too.