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| 1 | +Notes on the Free Translation Project |
| 2 | +************************************* |
| 3 | + |
| 4 | + Free software is going international! The Free Translation Project |
| 5 | +is a way to get maintainers of free software, translators, and users all |
| 6 | +together, so that will gradually become able to speak many languages. |
| 7 | +A few packages already provide translations for their messages. |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | + If you found this `ABOUT-NLS' file inside a distribution, you may |
| 10 | +assume that the distributed package does use GNU `gettext' internally, |
| 11 | +itself available at your nearest GNU archive site. But you do *not* |
| 12 | +need to install GNU `gettext' prior to configuring, installing or using |
| 13 | +this package with messages translated. |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | + Installers will find here some useful hints. These notes also |
| 16 | +explain how users should proceed for getting the programs to use the |
| 17 | +available translations. They tell how people wanting to contribute and |
| 18 | +work at translations should contact the appropriate team. |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | + When reporting bugs in the `intl/' directory or bugs which may be |
| 21 | +related to internationalization, you should tell about the version of |
| 22 | +`gettext' which is used. The information can be found in the |
| 23 | +`intl/VERSION' file, in internationalized packages. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +One advise in advance |
| 26 | +===================== |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | + If you want to exploit the full power of internationalization, you |
| 29 | +should configure it using |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | + ./configure --with-included-gettext |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +to force usage of internationalizing routines provided within this |
| 34 | +package, despite the existence of internationalizing capabilities in the |
| 35 | +operating system where this package is being installed. So far, only |
| 36 | +the `gettext' implementation in the GNU C library version 2 provides as |
| 37 | +many features (such as locale alias or message inheritance) as the |
| 38 | +implementation here. It is also not possible to offer this additional |
| 39 | +functionality on top of a `catgets' implementation. Future versions of |
| 40 | +GNU `gettext' will very likely convey even more functionality. So it |
| 41 | +might be a good idea to change to GNU `gettext' as soon as possible. |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | + So you need not provide this option if you are using GNU libc 2 or |
| 44 | +you have installed a recent copy of the GNU gettext package with the |
| 45 | +included `libintl'. |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +INSTALL Matters |
| 48 | +=============== |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | + Some packages are "localizable" when properly installed; the |
| 51 | +programs they contain can be made to speak your own native language. |
| 52 | +Most such packages use GNU `gettext'. Other packages have their own |
| 53 | +ways to internationalization, predating GNU `gettext'. |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | + By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of |
| 56 | +messages. It will automatically detect whether the system provides |
| 57 | +usable `catgets' (if using this is selected by the installer) or |
| 58 | +`gettext' functions. If neither is available, the GNU `gettext' own |
| 59 | +library will be used. This library is wholly contained within this |
| 60 | +package, usually in the `intl/' subdirectory, so prior installation of |
| 61 | +the GNU `gettext' package is *not* required. Installers may use |
| 62 | +special options at configuration time for changing the default |
| 63 | +behaviour. The commands: |
| 64 | + |
| 65 | + ./configure --with-included-gettext |
| 66 | + ./configure --with-catgets |
| 67 | + ./configure --disable-nls |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +will respectively bypass any pre-existing `catgets' or `gettext' to use |
| 70 | +the internationalizing routines provided within this package, enable |
| 71 | +the use of the `catgets' functions (if found on the locale system), or |
| 72 | +else, *totally* disable translation of messages. |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | + When you already have GNU `gettext' installed on your system and run |
| 75 | +configure without an option for your new package, `configure' will |
| 76 | +probably detect the previously built and installed `libintl.a' file and |
| 77 | +will decide to use this. This might be not what is desirable. You |
| 78 | +should use the more recent version of the GNU `gettext' library. I.e. |
| 79 | +if the file `intl/VERSION' shows that the library which comes with this |
| 80 | +package is more recent, you should use |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | + ./configure --with-included-gettext |
| 83 | + |
| 84 | +to prevent auto-detection. |
| 85 | + |
| 86 | + By default the configuration process will not test for the `catgets' |
| 87 | +function and therefore they will not be used. The reasons are already |
| 88 | +given above: the emulation on top of `catgets' cannot provide all the |
| 89 | +extensions provided by the GNU `gettext' library. If you nevertheless |
| 90 | +want to use the `catgets' functions use |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | + ./configure --with-catgets |
| 93 | + |
| 94 | +to enable the test for `catgets' (this causes no harm if `catgets' is |
| 95 | +not available on your system). If you really select this option we |
| 96 | +would like to hear about the reasons because we cannot think of any |
| 97 | +good one ourself. |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | + Internationalized packages have usually many `po/LL.po' files, where |
| 100 | +LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language. Unless |
| 101 | +translations have been forbidden at `configure' time by using the |
| 102 | +`--disable-nls' switch, all available translations are installed |
| 103 | +together with the package. However, the environment variable `LINGUAS' |
| 104 | +may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set. |
| 105 | +`LINGUAS' should then contain a space separated list of two-letter |
| 106 | +codes, stating which languages are allowed. |
| 107 | + |
| 108 | +Using This Package |
| 109 | +================== |
| 110 | + |
| 111 | + As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, you |
| 112 | +only have to set the `LANG' environment variable to the appropriate |
| 113 | +ISO 639 `LL' two-letter code prior to using the programs in the |
| 114 | +package. For example, let's suppose that you speak German. At the |
| 115 | +shell prompt, merely execute `setenv LANG de' (in `csh'), |
| 116 | +`export LANG; LANG=de' (in `sh') or `export LANG=de' (in `bash'). This |
| 117 | +can be done from your `.login' or `.profile' file, once and for all. |
| 118 | + |
| 119 | + An operating system might already offer message localization for |
| 120 | +many of its programs, while other programs have been installed locally |
| 121 | +with the full capabilities of GNU `gettext'. Just using `gettext' |
| 122 | +extended syntax for `LANG' would break proper localization of already |
| 123 | +available operating system programs. In this case, users should set |
| 124 | +both `LANGUAGE' and `LANG' variables in their environment, as programs |
| 125 | +using GNU `gettext' give preference to `LANGUAGE'. For example, some |
| 126 | +Swedish users would rather read translations in German than English for |
| 127 | +when Swedish is not available. This is easily accomplished by setting |
| 128 | +`LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while leaving `LANG' to `sv'. |
| 129 | + |
| 130 | +Translating Teams |
| 131 | +================= |
| 132 | + |
| 133 | + For the Free Translation Project to be a success, we need interested |
| 134 | +people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also |
| 135 | +able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language. |
| 136 | +Each translation team has its own mailing list, courtesy of Linux |
| 137 | +International. You may reach your translation team at the address |
| 138 | +` [email protected]', replacing LL by the two-letter ISO 639 code for your |
| 139 | +language. Language codes are *not* the same as the country codes given |
| 140 | +in ISO 3166. The following translation teams exist, as of December |
| 141 | +1997: |
| 142 | + |
| 143 | + Chinese `zh', Czech `cs', Danish `da', Dutch `nl', English `en', |
| 144 | + Esperanto `eo', Finnish `fi', French `fr', German `de', Hungarian |
| 145 | + `hu', Irish `ga', Italian `it', Indonesian `id', Japanese `ja', |
| 146 | + Korean `ko', Latin `la', Norwegian `no', Persian `fa', Polish |
| 147 | + `pl', Portuguese `pt', Russian `ru', Slovenian `sl', Spanish `es', |
| 148 | + Swedish `sv', and Turkish `tr'. |
| 149 | + |
| 150 | +For example, you may reach the Chinese translation team by writing to |
| 151 | + |
| 152 | + |
| 153 | + If you'd like to volunteer to *work* at translating messages, you |
| 154 | +should become a member of the translating team for your own language. |
| 155 | +The subscribing address is *not* the same as the list itself, it has |
| 156 | +`-request' appended. For example, speakers of Swedish can send a |
| 157 | +message to ` [email protected]', having this message body: |
| 158 | + |
| 159 | + subscribe |
| 160 | + |
| 161 | + Keep in mind that team members are expected to participate |
| 162 | +*actively* in translations, or at solving translational difficulties, |
| 163 | +rather than merely lurking around. If your team does not exist yet and |
| 164 | +you want to start one, or if you are unsure about what to do or how to |
| 165 | +get started, please write to ` [email protected]' to reach the |
| 166 | +coordinator for all translator teams. |
| 167 | + |
| 168 | + The English team is special. It works at improving and uniformizing |
| 169 | +the terminology in use. Proven linguistic skill are praised more than |
| 170 | +programming skill, here. |
| 171 | + |
| 172 | +Available Packages |
| 173 | +================== |
| 174 | + |
| 175 | + Languages are not equally supported in all packages. The following |
| 176 | +matrix shows the current state of internationalization, as of December |
| 177 | +1997. The matrix shows, in regard of each package, for which languages |
| 178 | +PO files have been submitted to translation coordination. |
| 179 | + |
| 180 | + Ready PO files cs da de en es fi fr it ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv |
| 181 | + .----------------------------------------------------. |
| 182 | + bash | [] [] [] | 3 |
| 183 | + bison | [] [] [] | 3 |
| 184 | + clisp | [] [] [] [] | 4 |
| 185 | + cpio | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6 |
| 186 | + diffutils | [] [] [] [] [] | 5 |
| 187 | + enscript | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6 |
| 188 | + fileutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 10 |
| 189 | + findutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| 190 | + flex | [] [] [] [] | 4 |
| 191 | + gcal | [] [] [] [] [] | 5 |
| 192 | + gettext | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 12 |
| 193 | + grep | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 10 |
| 194 | + hello | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11 |
| 195 | + id-utils | [] [] [] | 3 |
| 196 | + indent | [] [] [] [] [] | 5 |
| 197 | + libc | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 7 |
| 198 | + m4 | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6 |
| 199 | + make | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6 |
| 200 | + music | [] [] | 2 |
| 201 | + ptx | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| 202 | + recode | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| 203 | + sh-utils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| 204 | + sharutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6 |
| 205 | + tar | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11 |
| 206 | + texinfo | [] [] [] | 3 |
| 207 | + textutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| 208 | + wdiff | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| 209 | + `----------------------------------------------------' |
| 210 | + 17 languages cs da de en es fi fr it ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv |
| 211 | + 27 packages 6 4 25 1 18 1 26 2 1 12 20 9 19 7 4 7 17 179 |
| 212 | + |
| 213 | + Some counters in the preceding matrix are higher than the number of |
| 214 | +visible blocks let us expect. This is because a few extra PO files are |
| 215 | +used for implementing regional variants of languages, or language |
| 216 | +dialects. |
| 217 | + |
| 218 | + For a PO file in the matrix above to be effective, the package to |
| 219 | +which it applies should also have been internationalized and |
| 220 | +distributed as such by its maintainer. There might be an observable |
| 221 | +lag between the mere existence a PO file and its wide availability in a |
| 222 | +distribution. |
| 223 | + |
| 224 | + If December 1997 seems to be old, you may fetch a more recent copy |
| 225 | +of this `ABOUT-NLS' file on most GNU archive sites. |
| 226 | + |
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