mingw/share/doc/gettext/gettext_16.html

   1 <HTML>
   2 <HEAD>
   3 <!-- This HTML file has been created by texi2html 1.52b
   4      from gettext.texi on 6 June 2010 -->
   5
   6 <META HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
   7 <TITLE>GNU gettext utilities - 16  Concluding Remarks</TITLE>
   8 </HEAD>
   9 <BODY>
  10 Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_15.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_17.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_25.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
  11 <P><HR><P>
  12
  13
  14 <H1><A NAME="SEC315" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC315">16  Concluding Remarks</A></H1>
  15
  16 <P>
  17 We would like to conclude this GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> manual by presenting
  18 an history of the Translation Project so far.  We finally give
  19 a few pointers for those who want to do further research or readings
  20 about Native Language Support matters.
  21
  22 </P>
  23
  24
  25
  26 <H2><A NAME="SEC316" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC316">16.1  History of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE></A></H2>
  27 <P>
  28 <A NAME="IDX1258"></A>
  29
  30 </P>
  31 <P>
  32 Internationalization concerns and algorithms have been informally
  33 and casually discussed for years in GNU, sometimes around GNU
  34 <CODE>libc</CODE>, maybe around the incoming <CODE>Hurd</CODE>, or otherwise
  35 (nobody clearly remembers).  And even then, when the work started for
  36 real, this was somewhat independently of these previous discussions.
  37
  38 </P>
  39 <P>
  40 This all began in July 1994, when Patrick D'Cruze had the idea and
  41 initiative of internationalizing version 3.9.2 of GNU <CODE>fileutils</CODE>.
  42 He then asked Jim Meyering, the maintainer, how to get those changes
  43 folded into an official release.  That first draft was full of
  44 <CODE>#ifdef</CODE>s and somewhat disconcerting, and Jim wanted to find
  45 nicer ways.  Patrick and Jim shared some tries and experimentations
  46 in this area.  Then, feeling that this might eventually have a deeper
  47 impact on GNU, Jim wanted to know what standards were, and contacted
  48 Richard Stallman, who very quickly and verbally described an overall
  49 design for what was meant to become <CODE>glocale</CODE>, at that time.
  50
  51 </P>
  52 <P>
  53 Jim implemented <CODE>glocale</CODE> and got a lot of exhausting feedback
  54 from Patrick and Richard, of course, but also from Mitchum DSouza
  55 (who wrote a <CODE>catgets</CODE>-like package), Roland McGrath, maybe David
  56 MacKenzie, Fran&ccedil;ois Pinard, and Paul Eggert, all pushing and
  57 pulling in various directions, not always compatible, to the extent
  58 that after a couple of test releases, <CODE>glocale</CODE> was torn apart.
  59 In particular, Paul Eggert -- always keeping an eye on developments
  60 in Solaris -- advocated the use of the <CODE>gettext</CODE> API over
  61 <CODE>glocale</CODE>'s <CODE>catgets</CODE>-based API.
  62
  63 </P>
  64 <P>
  65 While Jim took some distance and time and became dad for a second
  66 time, Roland wanted to get GNU <CODE>libc</CODE> internationalized, and
  67 got Ulrich Drepper involved in that project.  Instead of starting
  68 from <CODE>glocale</CODE>, Ulrich rewrote something from scratch, but
  69 more conforming to the set of guidelines who emerged out of the
  70 <CODE>glocale</CODE> effort.  Then, Ulrich got people from the previous
  71 forum to involve themselves into this new project, and the switch
  72 from <CODE>glocale</CODE> to what was first named <CODE>msgutils</CODE>, renamed
  73 <CODE>nlsutils</CODE>, and later <CODE>gettext</CODE>, became officially accepted
  74 by Richard in May 1995 or so.
  75
  76 </P>
  77 <P>
  78 Let's summarize by saying that Ulrich Drepper wrote GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
  79 in April 1995.  The first official release of the package, including
  80 PO mode, occurred in July 1995, and was numbered 0.7.  Other people
  81 contributed to the effort by providing a discussion forum around
  82 Ulrich, writing little pieces of code, or testing.  These are quoted
  83 in the <CODE>THANKS</CODE> file which comes with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
  84 distribution.
  85
  86 </P>
  87 <P>
  88 While this was being done, Fran&ccedil;ois adapted half a dozen of
  89 GNU packages to <CODE>glocale</CODE> first, then later to <CODE>gettext</CODE>,
  90 putting them in pretest, so providing along the way an effective
  91 user environment for fine tuning the evolving tools.  He also took
  92 the responsibility of organizing and coordinating the Translation
  93 Project.  After nearly a year of informal exchanges between people from
  94 many countries, translator teams started to exist in May 1995, through
  95 the creation and support by Patrick D'Cruze of twenty unmoderated
  96 mailing lists for that many native languages, and two moderated
  97 lists: one for reaching all teams at once, the other for reaching
  98 all willing maintainers of internationalized free software packages.
  99
 100 </P>
 101 <P>
 102 Fran&ccedil;ois also wrote PO mode in June 1995 with the collaboration
 103 of Greg McGary, as a kind of contribution to Ulrich's package.
 104 He also gave a hand with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> Texinfo manual.
 105
 106 </P>
 107 <P>
 108 In 1997, Ulrich Drepper released the GNU libc 2.0, which included the
 109 <CODE>gettext</CODE>, <CODE>textdomain</CODE> and <CODE>bindtextdomain</CODE> functions.
 110
 111 </P>
 112 <P>
 113 In 2000, Ulrich Drepper added plural form handling (the <CODE>ngettext</CODE>
 114 function) to GNU libc.  Later, in 2001, he released GNU libc 2.2.x,
 115 which is the first free C library with full internationalization support.
 116
 117 </P>
 118 <P>
 119 Ulrich being quite busy in his role of General Maintainer of GNU libc,
 120 he handed over the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> maintenance to Bruno Haible in
 121 2000.  Bruno added the plural form handling to the tools as well, added
 122 support for UTF-8 and CJK locales, and wrote a few new tools for
 123 manipulating PO files.
 124
 125 </P>
 126
 127
 128 <H2><A NAME="SEC317" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC317">16.2  Related Readings</A></H2>
 129 <P>
 130 <A NAME="IDX1259"></A>
 131 <A NAME="IDX1260"></A>
 132
 133 </P>
 134 <P>
 135 <STRONG> NOTE: </STRONG> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
 136 revised.
 137
 138 </P>
 139 <P>
 140 Eugene H. Dorr (<TT>&lsquo;dorre@well.com&rsquo;</TT>) maintains an interesting
 141 bibliography on internationalization matters, called
 142 <CITE>Internationalization Reference List</CITE>, which is available as:
 143
 144 <PRE>
 145 ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/doc/i18n-books.txt
 146 </PRE>
 147
 148 <P>
 149 Michael Gschwind (<TT>&lsquo;mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at&rsquo;</TT>) maintains a
 150 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, entitled <CITE>Programming for
 151 Internationalisation</CITE>.  This FAQ discusses writing programs which
 152 can handle different language conventions, character sets, etc.;
 153 and is applicable to all character set encodings, with particular
 154 emphasis on ISO 8859-1.  It is regularly published in Usenet
 155 groups <TT>&lsquo;comp.unix.questions&rsquo;</TT>, <TT>&lsquo;comp.std.internat&rsquo;</TT>,
 156 <TT>&lsquo;comp.software.international&rsquo;</TT>, <TT>&lsquo;comp.lang.c&rsquo;</TT>,
 157 <TT>&lsquo;comp.windows.x&rsquo;</TT>, <TT>&lsquo;comp.std.c&rsquo;</TT>, <TT>&lsquo;comp.answers&rsquo;</TT>
 158 and <TT>&lsquo;news.answers&rsquo;</TT>.  The home location of this document is:
 159
 160 <PRE>
 161 ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit/ISO-programming
 162 </PRE>
 163
 164 <P>
 165 Patrick D'Cruze (<TT>&lsquo;pdcruze@li.org&rsquo;</TT>) wrote a tutorial about NLS
 166 matters, and Jochen Hein (<TT>&lsquo;Hein@student.tu-clausthal.de&rsquo;</TT>) took
 167 over the responsibility of maintaining it.  It may be found as:
 168
 169 <PRE>
 170 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/nls/catalogs/Incoming/...
 171      ...locale-tutorial-0.8.txt.gz
 172 </PRE>
 173
 174 <P>
 175 This site is mirrored in:
 176
 177 <PRE>
 178 ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/
 179 </PRE>
 180
 181 <P>
 182 A French version of the same tutorial should be findable at:
 183
 184 <PRE>
 185 ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/french/docs/
 186 </PRE>
 187
 188 <P>
 189 together with French translations of many Linux-related documents.
 190
 191 </P>
 192 <P><HR><P>
 193 Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_15.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_17.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_25.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
 194 </BODY>
 195 </HTML>