Poll: Will CAT tools still be essential in the future?
Autor vlákna: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
PRACOVNÍK SERVERU
Mar 15

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Will CAT tools still be essential in the future?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugalsko
Local time: 04:39
Člen (2007)
angličtina -> portugalština
+ ...
they may become unnecessary Mar 15

I do hope they become unnecessary, because I’m a happy dinosaur…

Philip Lees
Claudio Machado Junior
 
Michael Newton
Michael Newton  Identity Verified
Spojené státy americké
Local time: 23:39
japonština -> angličtina
+ ...
CAT tools essential? Mar 16

Will CATS ever supersede DOGS?

Daryo
Philip Lees
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Ines Radionovas-Lagoutte, PhD
Mario Chávez
 
Daryo
Daryo
Local time: 04:39
srbština -> angličtina
+ ...
Essential? Mar 16

for WHO exactly?

Philip Lees
ipv
 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Řecko
Local time: 06:39
řečtina -> angličtina
My bad Mar 16

Daryo wrote:

for WHO exactly?

Yes, I missed that at first reading and had already checked my answer when I realised that the answers don't match the question, because of that sneaky "essential" and the even sneakier "still".

It's like the old chestnut, "Have you stopped beating your wife?"


 
Lieven Malaise
Lieven Malaise  Identity Verified
Belgie
Local time: 05:39
Člen (2020)
francouzština -> nizozemština
+ ...
At least for another while Mar 16

Since their main reason of existence is storing translations for future reference and re-use I see no reason to believe that CAT tools will become less important, at least not in the near future. Apart from my single direct client all my agency customers work with CAT tools or expect me to use one.

Perhaps CAT tools aren't essential as such, since it's obviously perfectly possible to translate without them, but they are definitely one of the reasons why I still manage to make a dece
... See more
Since their main reason of existence is storing translations for future reference and re-use I see no reason to believe that CAT tools will become less important, at least not in the near future. Apart from my single direct client all my agency customers work with CAT tools or expect me to use one.

Perhaps CAT tools aren't essential as such, since it's obviously perfectly possible to translate without them, but they are definitely one of the reasons why I still manage to make a decent living out of translation today.
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Christine Andersen
Zea_Mays
 
Daryo
Daryo
Local time: 04:39
srbština -> angličtina
+ ...
You know why the speed camera was invented? Mar 16

So they can be put on perfectly safe open stretches of road and used to collect money from drivers fed up with nonsense speed limits?
Ahem ... No.
If my memory is not playing tricks on me, the inventor wanted to help racing drivers to improve their driving.

OK, I know, it's just a silly digression, no parallels whatsoever with dogs or cats nor with translating.


 
Zea_Mays
Zea_Mays  Identity Verified
Itálie
Local time: 05:39
angličtina -> němčina
+ ...
If... Mar 16

If you want consistency and less effort with lengthy, repetitive copy - yes. AI bots are very bad in working on longer copy, they quickly miss the point, disregard TMs and glossaries and make up stuff to obfuscate these facts. NB: even when integrated into CATs.

Alexandra Speirs
Lieven Malaise
Christine Andersen
 
Sean O'Byrne
Sean O'Byrne
Německo
Local time: 05:39
němčina -> angličtina
Badly worded question Mar 16

CATs are not and never have been essential. They are sometimes helpful, often not.

Mario Chávez
Daryo
Jennifer Levey
Lija Lija
 
Mario Chávez
Mario Chávez
Spojené státy americké
Local time: 23:39
angličtina -> španělština
+ ...
As always... Mar 16

I love rhetorical/existencial questions.

I recall our hospital's IT director saying, ever so smarmily, that CAT tool makers will all use AI and change accordingly.


MC


Daryo wrote:

for WHO exactly?


 
Mario Chávez
Mario Chávez
Spojené státy americké
Local time: 23:39
angličtina -> španělština
+ ...
Define “essential” Mar 16

As everyone knows, we call something essential as an article, object, tool, feature, etc. we cannot do the job without. Translators have been doing translations from time immemorial without the need of digital or computer tools. Sometimes I think poll writers are very young and think that non-digital tools or means of writing or production aren't worth the bother to look up, learn about or study.

It reminds me of the time a localization manager said something during an online meetin
... See more
As everyone knows, we call something essential as an article, object, tool, feature, etc. we cannot do the job without. Translators have been doing translations from time immemorial without the need of digital or computer tools. Sometimes I think poll writers are very young and think that non-digital tools or means of writing or production aren't worth the bother to look up, learn about or study.

It reminds me of the time a localization manager said something during an online meeting a few years ago. He remarked something about localizing user interfaces, I believe, but in a categorical way, as if only videogame-related user interfaces were the main object of software localization efforts. I pointed out to him that there are complex user interfaces found in several software applications.

I hope my memory is serving me well; I'm paraphrasing my own anecdote above.

Digital or software tools to translate or to do almost anything else are not essential per se. Of course, NASA (for instance) may consider some software tools essential and mission-critical to perform calculations and other space-related operations. So, it's about the scope and the work to be done in question.


MC
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Daryo
 


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Poll: Will CAT tools still be essential in the future?






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