vasilito
facf0c92e0
Red Bear OS is a full fork. All sources must be available from git clone with zero network access. Removed gitignore rules that excluded fetched source trees under recipes/*/source/, local/recipes/kde/*/source/, local/recipes/qt/*/source/, and vendor source trees. Build artifacts (target/, build/, source.tar, *.o, *.so) remain excluded. 127291 files added — kernel, relibc, base, bootloader, pkgar, all KDE/Qt frameworks, mesa, wayland, DRM drivers, and every other recipe source.
711 lines
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HTML
711 lines
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HTML
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<title>GNU gettext utilities: 12. The Translator's View</title>
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<body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000">
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<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
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<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_11.html#SEC197" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_13.html#SEC230" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_toc.html#SEC_Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_21.html#SEC389" title="Index">Index</a>]</td>
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<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td>
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</tr></table>
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<hr size="2">
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<a name="Translators"></a>
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<a name="SEC217"></a>
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<h1 class="chapter"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC210">12. The Translator's View</a> </h1>
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<a name="Trans-Intro-0"></a>
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<a name="SEC218"></a>
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<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC211">12.1 Introduction 0</a> </h2>
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<p><strong> NOTE: </strong> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
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revised.
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</p>
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<p>Free software is going international! The Translation Project is a way
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to get maintainers, translators and users all together, so free software
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will gradually become able to speak many native languages.
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</p>
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<p>The GNU <code>gettext</code> tool set contains <em>everything</em> maintainers
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need for internationalizing their packages for messages. It also
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contains quite useful tools for helping translators at localizing
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messages to their native language, once a package has already been
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internationalized.
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</p>
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<p>To achieve the Translation Project, we need many interested
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people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also
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able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language.
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If you'd like to volunteer to <em>work</em> at translating messages,
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please send mail to your translating team.
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</p>
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<p>Each team has its own mailing list, courtesy of Linux
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International. You may reach your translating team at the address
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‘<tt><var>ll</var>@li.org</tt>’, replacing <var>ll</var> by the two-letter ISO 639
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code for your language. Language codes are <em>not</em> the same as
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country codes given in ISO 3166. The following translating teams
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exist:
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</p>
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<blockquote><p>Chinese <code>zh</code>, Czech <code>cs</code>, Danish <code>da</code>, Dutch <code>nl</code>,
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Esperanto <code>eo</code>, Finnish <code>fi</code>, French <code>fr</code>, Irish
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<code>ga</code>, German <code>de</code>, Greek <code>el</code>, Italian <code>it</code>,
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Japanese <code>ja</code>, Indonesian <code>in</code>, Norwegian <code>no</code>, Polish
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<code>pl</code>, Portuguese <code>pt</code>, Russian <code>ru</code>, Spanish <code>es</code>,
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Swedish <code>sv</code> and Turkish <code>tr</code>.
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</p></blockquote>
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<p>For example, you may reach the Chinese translating team by writing to
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‘<tt>zh@li.org</tt>’. When you become a member of the translating team
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for your own language, you may subscribe to its list. For example,
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Swedish people can send a message to ‘<tt>sv-request@li.org</tt>’,
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having this message body:
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</p>
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<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="example">subscribe
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</pre></td></tr></table>
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<p>Keep in mind that team members should be interested in <em>working</em>
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at translations, or at solving translational difficulties, rather than
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merely lurking around. If your team does not exist yet and you want to
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start one, please write to ‘<tt>coordinator@translationproject.org</tt>’;
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you will then reach the coordinator for all translator teams.
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</p>
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<p>A handful of GNU packages have already been adapted and provided
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with message translations for several languages. Translation
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teams have begun to organize, using these packages as a starting
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point. But there are many more packages and many languages for
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which we have no volunteer translators. If you would like to
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volunteer to work at translating messages, please send mail to
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‘<tt>coordinator@translationproject.org</tt>’ indicating what language(s)
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you can work on.
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</p>
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<a name="Trans-Intro-1"></a>
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<a name="SEC219"></a>
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<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC212">12.2 Introduction 1</a> </h2>
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<p><strong> NOTE: </strong> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
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revised.
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</p>
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<p>This is now official, GNU is going international! Here is the
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announcement submitted for the January 1995 GNU Bulletin:
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</p>
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<blockquote><p>A handful of GNU packages have already been adapted and provided
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with message translations for several languages. Translation
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teams have begun to organize, using these packages as a starting
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point. But there are many more packages and many languages
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for which we have no volunteer translators. If you'd like to
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volunteer to work at translating messages, please send mail to
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‘<samp>coordinator@translationproject.org</samp>’ indicating what language(s)
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you can work on.
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</p></blockquote>
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<p>This document should answer many questions for those who are curious about
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the process or would like to contribute. Please at least skim over it,
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hoping to cut down a little of the high volume of e-mail generated by this
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collective effort towards internationalization of free software.
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</p>
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<p>Most free programming which is widely shared is done in English, and
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currently, English is used as the main communicating language between
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national communities collaborating to free software. This very document
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is written in English. This will not change in the foreseeable future.
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</p>
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<p>However, there is a strong appetite from national communities for
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having more software able to write using national language and habits,
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and there is an on-going effort to modify free software in such a way
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that it becomes able to do so. The experiments driven so far raised
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an enthusiastic response from pretesters, so we believe that
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internationalization of free software is dedicated to succeed.
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</p>
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<p>For suggestion clarifications, additions or corrections to this
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document, please e-mail to ‘<tt>coordinator@translationproject.org</tt>’.
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</p>
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<a name="Discussions"></a>
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<a name="SEC220"></a>
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<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC213">12.3 Discussions</a> </h2>
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<p><strong> NOTE: </strong> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
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revised.
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</p>
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<p>Facing this internationalization effort, a few users expressed their
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concerns. Some of these doubts are presented and discussed, here.
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li> Smaller groups
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<p>Some languages are not spoken by a very large number of people, so people
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speaking them sometimes consider that there may not be all that much
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demand such versions of free software packages. Moreover, many people
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being <em>into computers</em>, in some countries, generally seem to prefer
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English versions of their software.
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</p>
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<p>On the other end, people might enjoy their own language a lot, and be
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very motivated at providing to themselves the pleasure of having their
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beloved free software speaking their mother tongue. They do themselves
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a personal favor, and do not pay that much attention to the number of
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people benefiting of their work.
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</p>
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</li><li> Misinterpretation
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<p>Other users are shy to push forward their own language, seeing in this
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some kind of misplaced propaganda. Someone thought there must be some
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users of the language over the networks pestering other people with it.
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</p>
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<p>But any spoken language is worth localization, because there are
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people behind the language for whom the language is important and
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dear to their hearts.
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</p>
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</li><li> Odd translations
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<p>The biggest problem is to find the right translations so that
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everybody can understand the messages. Translations are usually a
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little odd. Some people get used to English, to the extent they may
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find translations into their own language “rather pushy, obnoxious
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and sometimes even hilarious.” As a French speaking man, I have
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the experience of those instruction manuals for goods, so poorly
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translated in French in Korea or Taiwan…
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</p>
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<p>The fact is that we sometimes have to create a kind of national
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computer culture, and this is not easy without the collaboration of
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many people liking their mother tongue. This is why translations are
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better achieved by people knowing and loving their own language, and
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ready to work together at improving the results they obtain.
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</p>
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</li><li> Dependencies over the GPL or LGPL
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<p>Some people wonder if using GNU <code>gettext</code> necessarily brings their
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package under the protective wing of the GNU General Public License or
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the GNU Lesser General Public License, when they do not want to make
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their program free, or want other kinds of freedom. The simplest
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answer is “normally not”.
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</p>
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<p>The <code>gettext-runtime</code> part of GNU <code>gettext</code>, i.e. the
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contents of <code>libintl</code>, is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public
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License. The <code>gettext-tools</code> part of GNU <code>gettext</code>, i.e. the
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rest of the GNU <code>gettext</code> package, is covered by the GNU General
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Public License.
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</p>
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<p>The mere marking of localizable strings in a package, or conditional
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inclusion of a few lines for initialization, is not really including
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GPL'ed or LGPL'ed code. However, since the localization routines in
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<code>libintl</code> are under the LGPL, the LGPL needs to be considered.
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It gives the right to distribute the complete unmodified source of
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<code>libintl</code> even with non-free programs. It also gives the right
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to use <code>libintl</code> as a shared library, even for non-free programs.
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But it gives the right to use <code>libintl</code> as a static library or
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to incorporate <code>libintl</code> into another library only to free
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software.
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</p>
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</li></ul>
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<a name="Organization"></a>
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<a name="SEC221"></a>
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<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC214">12.4 Organization</a> </h2>
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<p><strong> NOTE: </strong> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
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revised.
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</p>
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<p>On a larger scale, the true solution would be to organize some kind of
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fairly precise set up in which volunteers could participate. I gave
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some thought to this idea lately, and realize there will be some
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touchy points. I thought of writing to Richard Stallman to launch
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such a project, but feel it might be good to shake out the ideas
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between ourselves first. Most probably that Linux International has
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some experience in the field already, or would like to orchestrate
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the volunteer work, maybe. Food for thought, in any case!
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</p>
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<p>I guess we have to setup something early, somehow, that will help
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many possible contributors of the same language to interlock and avoid
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work duplication, and further be put in contact for solving together
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problems particular to their tongue (in most languages, there are many
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difficulties peculiar to translating technical English). My Swedish
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contributor acknowledged these difficulties, and I'm well aware of
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them for French.
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</p>
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<p>This is surely not a technical issue, but we should manage so the
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effort of locale contributors be maximally useful, despite the national
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team layer interface between contributors and maintainers.
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</p>
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<p>The Translation Project needs some setup for coordinating language
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coordinators. Localizing evolving programs will surely
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become a permanent and continuous activity in the free software community,
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once well started.
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The setup should be minimally completed and tested before GNU
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<code>gettext</code> becomes an official reality. The e-mail address
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‘<tt>coordinator@translationproject.org</tt>’ has been set up for receiving
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offers from volunteers and general e-mail on these topics. This address
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reaches the Translation Project coordinator.
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</p>
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<a name="Central-Coordination"></a>
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<a name="SEC222"></a>
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<h3 class="subsection"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC215">12.4.1 Central Coordination</a> </h3>
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<p>I also think GNU will need sooner than it thinks, that someone set up
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a way to organize and coordinate these groups. Some kind of group
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of groups. My opinion is that it would be good that GNU delegates
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this task to a small group of collaborating volunteers, shortly.
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Perhaps in ‘<tt>gnu.announce</tt>’ a list of this national committee's
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can be published.
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</p>
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<p>My role as coordinator would simply be to refer to Ulrich any German
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speaking volunteer interested to localization of free software packages, and
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maybe helping national groups to initially organize, while maintaining
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national registries for until national groups are ready to take over.
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In fact, the coordinator should ease volunteers to get in contact with
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one another for creating national teams, which should then select
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one coordinator per language, or country (regionalized language).
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If well done, the coordination should be useful without being an
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overwhelming task, the time to put delegations in place.
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</p>
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<a name="National-Teams"></a>
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<a name="SEC223"></a>
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<h3 class="subsection"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC216">12.4.2 National Teams</a> </h3>
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<p>I suggest we look for volunteer coordinators/editors for individual
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languages. These people will scan contributions of translation files
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for various programs, for their own languages, and will ensure high
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and uniform standards of diction.
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</p>
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<p>From my current experience with other people in these days, those who
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provide localizations are very enthusiastic about the process, and are
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more interested in the localization process than in the program they
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localize, and want to do many programs, not just one. This seems
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to confirm that having a coordinator/editor for each language is a
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good idea.
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</p>
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<p>We need to choose someone who is good at writing clear and concise
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prose in the language in question. That is hard—we can't check
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it ourselves. So we need to ask a few people to judge each others'
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writing and select the one who is best.
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</p>
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<p>I announce my prerelease to a few dozen people, and you would not
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believe all the discussions it generated already. I shudder to think
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what will happen when this will be launched, for true, officially,
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world wide. Who am I to arbitrate between two Czekolsovak users
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contradicting each other, for example?
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</p>
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<p>I assume that your German is not much better than my French so that
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I would not be able to judge about these formulations. What I would
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suggest is that for each language there is a group for people who
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maintain the PO files and judge about changes. I suspect there will
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be cultural differences between how such groups of people will behave.
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Some will have relaxed ways, reach consensus easily, and have anyone
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of the group relate to the maintainers, while others will fight to
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death, organize heavy administrations up to national standards, and
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use strict channels.
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</p>
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<p>The German team is putting out a good example. Right now, they are
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maybe half a dozen people revising translations of each other and
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discussing the linguistic issues. I do not even have all the names.
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Ulrich Drepper is taking care of coordinating the German team.
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He subscribed to all my pretest lists, so I do not even have to warn
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him specifically of incoming releases.
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</p>
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<p>I'm sure, that is a good idea to get teams for each language working
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on translations. That will make the translations better and more
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consistent.
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</p>
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<a name="Sub_002dCultures"></a>
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<a name="SEC224"></a>
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<h4 class="subsubsection"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC217">12.4.2.1 Sub-Cultures</a> </h4>
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<p>Taking French for example, there are a few sub-cultures around computers
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which developed diverging vocabularies. Picking volunteers here and
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there without addressing this problem in an organized way, soon in the
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project, might produce a distasteful mix of internationalized programs,
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and possibly trigger endless quarrels among those who really care.
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</p>
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<p>Keeping some kind of unity in the way French localization of
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internationalized programs is achieved is a difficult (and delicate) job.
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Knowing the latin character of French people (:-), if we take this
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the wrong way, we could end up nowhere, or spoil a lot of energies.
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Maybe we should begin to address this problem seriously <em>before</em>
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GNU <code>gettext</code> become officially published. And I suspect that this
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means soon!
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</p>
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<a name="Organizational-Ideas"></a>
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<a name="SEC225"></a>
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<h4 class="subsubsection"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC218">12.4.2.2 Organizational Ideas</a> </h4>
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<p>I expect the next big changes after the official release. Please note
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that I use the German translation of the short GPL message. We need
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to set a few good examples before the localization goes out for true
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in the free software community. Here are a few points to discuss:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Each group should have one FTP server (at least one master).
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</li><li>
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The files on the server should reflect the latest version (of
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course!) and it should also contain a RCS directory with the
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corresponding archives (I don't have this now).
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</li><li>
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There should also be a ChangeLog file (this is more useful than the
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RCS archive but can be generated automatically from the later by
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Emacs).
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</li><li>
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A <em>core group</em> should judge about questionable changes (for now
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this group consists solely by me but I ask some others occasionally;
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this also seems to work).
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</li></ul>
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<a name="Mailing-Lists"></a>
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<a name="SEC226"></a>
|
|
<h3 class="subsection"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC219">12.4.3 Mailing Lists</a> </h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>If we get any inquiries about GNU <code>gettext</code>, send them on to:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="example">‘<tt>coordinator@translationproject.org</tt>’
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>The ‘<tt>*-pretest</tt>’ lists are quite useful to me, maybe the idea could
|
|
be generalized to many GNU, and non-GNU packages. But each maintainer
|
|
his/her way!
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>François, we have a mechanism in place here at
|
|
‘<tt>gnu.ai.mit.edu</tt>’ to track teams, support mailing lists for
|
|
them and log members. We have a slight preference that you use it.
|
|
If this is OK with you, I can get you clued in.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Things are changing! A few years ago, when Daniel Fekete and I
|
|
asked for a mailing list for GNU localization, nested at the FSF, we
|
|
were politely invited to organize it anywhere else, and so did we.
|
|
For communicating with my pretesters, I later made a handful of
|
|
mailing lists located at iro.umontreal.ca and administrated by
|
|
<code>majordomo</code>. These lists have been <em>very</em> dependable
|
|
so far…
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>I suspect that the German team will organize itself a mailing list
|
|
located in Germany, and so forth for other countries. But before they
|
|
organize for true, it could surely be useful to offer mailing lists
|
|
located at the FSF to each national team. So yes, please explain me
|
|
how I should proceed to create and handle them.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>We should create temporary mailing lists, one per country, to help
|
|
people organize. Temporary, because once regrouped and structured, it
|
|
would be fair the volunteers from country bring back <em>their</em> list
|
|
in there and manage it as they want. My feeling is that, in the long
|
|
run, each team should run its own list, from within their country.
|
|
There also should be some central list to which all teams could
|
|
subscribe as they see fit, as long as each team is represented in it.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<a name="Information-Flow"></a>
|
|
<a name="SEC227"></a>
|
|
<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC220">12.5 Information Flow</a> </h2>
|
|
|
|
<p><strong> NOTE: </strong> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
|
|
revised.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>There will surely be some discussion about this messages after the
|
|
packages are finally released. If people now send you some proposals
|
|
for better messages, how do you proceed? Jim, please note that
|
|
right now, as I put forward nearly a dozen of localizable programs, I
|
|
receive both the translations and the coordination concerns about them.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>If I put one of my things to pretest, Ulrich receives the announcement
|
|
and passes it on to the German team, who make last minute revisions.
|
|
Then he submits the translation files to me <em>as the maintainer</em>.
|
|
For free packages I do not maintain, I would not even hear about it.
|
|
This scheme could be made to work for the whole Translation Project,
|
|
I think. For security reasons, maybe Ulrich (national coordinators,
|
|
in fact) should update central registry kept at the Translation Project
|
|
(Jim, me, or Len's recruits) once in a while.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>In December/January, I was aggressively ready to internationalize
|
|
all of GNU, giving myself the duty of one small GNU package per week
|
|
or so, taking many weeks or months for bigger packages. But it does
|
|
not work this way. I first did all the things I'm responsible for.
|
|
I've nothing against some missionary work on other maintainers, but
|
|
I'm also losing a lot of energy over it—same debates over again.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>And when the first localized packages are released we'll get a lot of
|
|
responses about ugly translations :-). Surely, and we need to have
|
|
beforehand a fairly good idea about how to handle the information
|
|
flow between the national teams and the package maintainers.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Please start saving somewhere a quick history of each PO file. I know
|
|
for sure that the file format will change, allowing for comments.
|
|
It would be nice that each file has a kind of log, and references for
|
|
those who want to submit comments or gripes, or otherwise contribute.
|
|
I sent a proposal for a fast and flexible format, but it is not
|
|
receiving acceptance yet by the GNU deciders. I'll tell you when I
|
|
have more information about this.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<a name="Translating-plural-forms"></a>
|
|
<a name="SEC228"></a>
|
|
<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC221">12.6 Translating plural forms</a> </h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Suppose you are translating a PO file, and it contains an entry like this:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">#, c-format
|
|
msgid "One file removed"
|
|
msgid_plural "%d files removed"
|
|
msgstr[0] ""
|
|
msgstr[1] ""
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>What does this mean? How do you fill it in?
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Such an entry denotes a message with plural forms, that is, a message where
|
|
the text depends on a cardinal number. The general form of the message,
|
|
in English, is the <code>msgid_plural</code> line. The <code>msgid</code> line is the
|
|
English singular form, that is, the form for when the number is equal to 1.
|
|
More details about plural forms are explained in <a href="gettext_11.html#SEC207">Additional functions for plural forms</a>.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>The first thing you need to look at is the <code>Plural-Forms</code> line in the
|
|
header entry of the PO file. It contains the number of plural forms and a
|
|
formula. If the PO file does not yet have such a line, you have to add it.
|
|
It only depends on the language into which you are translating. You can
|
|
get this info by using the <code>msginit</code> command (see <a href="gettext_6.html#SEC45">Creating a New PO File</a>) –
|
|
it contains a database of known plural formulas – or by asking other
|
|
members of your translation team.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Suppose the line looks as follows:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">"Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : n%10>=2 && n"
|
|
"%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;\n"
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>It's logically one line; recall that the PO file formatting is allowed to
|
|
break long lines so that each physical line fits in 80 monospaced columns.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>The value of <code>nplurals</code> here tells you that there are three plural
|
|
forms. The first thing you need to do is to ensure that the entry contains
|
|
an <code>msgstr</code> line for each of the forms:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">#, c-format
|
|
msgid "One file removed"
|
|
msgid_plural "%d files removed"
|
|
msgstr[0] ""
|
|
msgstr[1] ""
|
|
msgstr[2] ""
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>Then translate the <code>msgid_plural</code> line and fill it in into each
|
|
<code>msgstr</code> line:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">#, c-format
|
|
msgid "One file removed"
|
|
msgid_plural "%d files removed"
|
|
msgstr[0] "%d slika uklonjenih"
|
|
msgstr[1] "%d slika uklonjenih"
|
|
msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>Now you can refine the translation so that it matches the plural form.
|
|
According to the formula above, <code>msgstr[0]</code> is used when the number
|
|
ends in 1 but does not end in 11; <code>msgstr[1]</code> is used when the number
|
|
ends in 2, 3, 4, but not in 12, 13, 14; and <code>msgstr[2]</code> is used in
|
|
all other cases. With this knowledge, you can refine the translations:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">#, c-format
|
|
msgid "One file removed"
|
|
msgid_plural "%d files removed"
|
|
msgstr[0] "%d slika je uklonjena"
|
|
msgstr[1] "%d datoteke uklonjenih"
|
|
msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>You noticed that in the English singular form (<code>msgid</code>) the number
|
|
placeholder could be omitted and replaced by the numeral word “one”.
|
|
Can you do this in your translation as well?
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">msgstr[0] "jednom datotekom je uklonjen"
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>Well, it depends on whether <code>msgstr[0]</code> applies only to the number 1,
|
|
or to other numbers as well. If, according to the plural formula,
|
|
<code>msgstr[0]</code> applies only to <code>n == 1</code>, then you can use the
|
|
specialized translation without the number placeholder. In our case,
|
|
however, <code>msgstr[0]</code> also applies to the numbers 21, 31, 41, etc.,
|
|
and therefore you cannot omit the placeholder.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<a name="Prioritizing-messages"></a>
|
|
<a name="SEC229"></a>
|
|
<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC222">12.7 Prioritizing messages: How to determine which messages to translate first</a> </h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>A translator sometimes has only a limited amount of time per week to
|
|
spend on a package, and some packages have quite large message catalogs
|
|
(over 1000 messages). Therefore she wishes to translate the messages
|
|
first that are the most visible to the user, or that occur most frequently.
|
|
This section describes how to determine these "most urgent" messages.
|
|
It also applies to determine the "next most urgent" messages after the
|
|
message catalog has already been partially translated.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>In a first step, she uses the programs like a user would do. While she
|
|
does this, the GNU <code>gettext</code> library logs into a file the not yet
|
|
translated messages for which a translation was requested from the program.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>In a second step, she uses the PO mode to translate precisely this set
|
|
of messages.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<a name="IDX1089"></a>
|
|
<p>Here are more details. The GNU <code>libintl</code> library (but not the
|
|
corresponding functions in GNU <code>libc</code>) supports an environment variable
|
|
<code>GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED</code>. The GNU <code>libintl</code> library will
|
|
log into this file the messages for which <code>gettext()</code> and related
|
|
functions couldn't find the translation. If the file doesn't exist, it
|
|
will be created as needed. On systems with GNU <code>libc</code> a shared library
|
|
‘<samp>preloadable_libintl.so</samp>’ is provided that can be used with the ELF
|
|
‘<samp>LD_PRELOAD</samp>’ mechanism.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>So, in the first step, the translator uses these commands on systems with
|
|
GNU <code>libc</code>:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/preloadable_libintl.so
|
|
$ export LD_PRELOAD
|
|
$ GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED=$HOME/gettextlogused
|
|
$ export GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>and these commands on other systems:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">$ GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED=$HOME/gettextlogused
|
|
$ export GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>Then she uses and peruses the programs. (It is a good and recommended
|
|
practice to use the programs for which you provide translations: it
|
|
gives you the needed context.) When done, she removes the environment
|
|
variables:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">$ unset LD_PRELOAD
|
|
$ unset GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>The second step starts with removing duplicates:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">$ msguniq $HOME/gettextlogused > missing.po
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>The result is a PO file, but needs some preprocessing before a PO file editor
|
|
can be used with it. First, it is a multi-domain PO file, containing
|
|
messages from many translation domains. Second, it lacks all translator
|
|
comments and source references. Here is how to get a list of the affected
|
|
translation domains:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">$ sed -n -e 's,^domain "\(.*\)"$,\1,p' < missing.po | sort | uniq
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>Then the translator can handle the domains one by one. For simplicity,
|
|
let's use environment variables to denote the language, domain and source
|
|
package.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">$ lang=nl # your language
|
|
$ domain=coreutils # the name of the domain to be handled
|
|
$ package=/usr/src/gnu/coreutils-4.5.4 # the package where it comes from
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>She takes the latest copy of ‘<tt>$lang.po</tt>’ from the Translation Project,
|
|
or from the package (in most cases, ‘<tt>$package/po/$lang.po</tt>’), or
|
|
creates a fresh one if she's the first translator (see <a href="gettext_6.html#SEC45">Creating a New PO File</a>).
|
|
She then uses the following commands to mark the not urgent messages as
|
|
"obsolete". (This doesn't mean that these messages - translated and
|
|
untranslated ones - will go away. It simply means that the PO file editor
|
|
will ignore them in the following editing session.)
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">$ msggrep --domain=$domain missing.po | grep -v '^domain' \
|
|
> $domain-missing.po
|
|
$ msgattrib --set-obsolete --ignore-file $domain-missing.po $domain.$lang.po \
|
|
> $domain.$lang-urgent.po
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>The she translates ‘<tt>$domain.$lang-urgent.po</tt>’ by use of a PO file editor
|
|
(see section <a href="gettext_8.html#SEC63">Editing PO Files</a>).
|
|
(FIXME: I don't know whether <code>KBabel</code> and <code>gtranslator</code> also
|
|
preserve obsolete messages, as they should.)
|
|
Finally she restores the not urgent messages (with their earlier
|
|
translations, for those which were already translated) through this command:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">$ msgmerge --no-fuzzy-matching $domain.$lang-urgent.po $package/po/$domain.pot \
|
|
> $domain.$lang.po
|
|
</pre></td></tr></table>
|
|
|
|
<p>Then she can submit ‘<tt>$domain.$lang.po</tt>’ and proceed to the next domain.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
|
|
<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC217" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_13.html#SEC230" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_toc.html#SEC_Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_21.html#SEC389" title="Index">Index</a>]</td>
|
|
<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td>
|
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</tr></table>
|
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<p>
|
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