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  14 <H1><A NAME="SEC198" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC198">12  The Translator's View</A></H1>
  15
  16
  17
  18 <H2><A NAME="SEC199" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC199">12.1  Introduction 0</A></H2>
  19
  20 <P>
  21 <STRONG> NOTE: </STRONG> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
  22 revised.
  23
  24 </P>
  25 <P>
  26 Free software is going international!  The Translation Project is a way
  27 to get maintainers, translators and users all together, so free software
  28 will gradually become able to speak many native languages.
  29
  30 </P>
  31 <P>
  32 The GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> tool set contains <EM>everything</EM> maintainers
  33 need for internationalizing their packages for messages.  It also
  34 contains quite useful tools for helping translators at localizing
  35 messages to their native language, once a package has already been
  36 internationalized.
  37
  38 </P>
  39 <P>
  40 To achieve the Translation Project, we need many interested
  41 people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also
  42 able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language.
  43 If you'd like to volunteer to <EM>work</EM> at translating messages,
  44 please send mail to your translating team.
  45
  46 </P>
  47 <P>
  48 Each team has its own mailing list, courtesy of Linux
  49 International.  You may reach your translating team at the address
  50 <TT>&lsquo;<VAR>ll</VAR>@li.org&rsquo;</TT>, replacing <VAR>ll</VAR> by the two-letter ISO 639
  51 code for your language.  Language codes are <EM>not</EM> the same as
  52 country codes given in ISO 3166.  The following translating teams
  53 exist:
  54
  55 </P>
  56
  57 <BLOCKQUOTE>
  58 <P>
  59 Chinese <CODE>zh</CODE>, Czech <CODE>cs</CODE>, Danish <CODE>da</CODE>, Dutch <CODE>nl</CODE>,
  60 Esperanto <CODE>eo</CODE>, Finnish <CODE>fi</CODE>, French <CODE>fr</CODE>, Irish
  61 <CODE>ga</CODE>, German <CODE>de</CODE>, Greek <CODE>el</CODE>, Italian <CODE>it</CODE>,
  62 Japanese <CODE>ja</CODE>, Indonesian <CODE>in</CODE>, Norwegian <CODE>no</CODE>, Polish
  63 <CODE>pl</CODE>, Portuguese <CODE>pt</CODE>, Russian <CODE>ru</CODE>, Spanish <CODE>es</CODE>,
  64 Swedish <CODE>sv</CODE> and Turkish <CODE>tr</CODE>.
  65 </BLOCKQUOTE>
  66
  67 <P>
  68 For example, you may reach the Chinese translating team by writing to
  69 <TT>&lsquo;zh@li.org&rsquo;</TT>.  When you become a member of the translating team
  70 for your own language, you may subscribe to its list.  For example,
  71 Swedish people can send a message to <TT>&lsquo;sv-request@li.org&rsquo;</TT>,
  72 having this message body:
  73
  74 </P>
  75
  76 <PRE>
  77 subscribe
  78 </PRE>
  79
  80 <P>
  81 Keep in mind that team members should be interested in <EM>working</EM>
  82 at translations, or at solving translational difficulties, rather than
  83 merely lurking around.  If your team does not exist yet and you want to
  84 start one, please write to <TT>&lsquo;coordinator@translationproject.org&rsquo;</TT>;
  85 you will then reach the coordinator for all translator teams.
  86
  87 </P>
  88 <P>
  89 A handful of GNU packages have already been adapted and provided
  90 with message translations for several languages.  Translation
  91 teams have begun to organize, using these packages as a starting
  92 point.  But there are many more packages and many languages for
  93 which we have no volunteer translators.  If you would like to
  94 volunteer to work at translating messages, please send mail to
  95 <TT>&lsquo;coordinator@translationproject.org&rsquo;</TT> indicating what language(s)
  96 you can work on.
  97
  98 </P>
  99
 100
 101 <H2><A NAME="SEC200" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC200">12.2  Introduction 1</A></H2>
 102
 103 <P>
 104 <STRONG> NOTE: </STRONG> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
 105 revised.
 106
 107 </P>
 108 <P>
 109 This is now official, GNU is going international!  Here is the
 110 announcement submitted for the January 1995 GNU Bulletin:
 111
 112 </P>
 113
 114 <BLOCKQUOTE>
 115 <P>
 116 A handful of GNU packages have already been adapted and provided
 117 with message translations for several languages.  Translation
 118 teams have begun to organize, using these packages as a starting
 119 point.  But there are many more packages and many languages
 120 for which we have no volunteer translators.  If you'd like to
 121 volunteer to work at translating messages, please send mail to
 122 <SAMP>&lsquo;coordinator@translationproject.org&rsquo;</SAMP> indicating what language(s)
 123 you can work on.
 124 </BLOCKQUOTE>
 125
 126 <P>
 127 This document should answer many questions for those who are curious about
 128 the process or would like to contribute.  Please at least skim over it,
 129 hoping to cut down a little of the high volume of e-mail generated by this
 130 collective effort towards internationalization of free software.
 131
 132 </P>
 133 <P>
 134 Most free programming which is widely shared is done in English, and
 135 currently, English is used as the main communicating language between
 136 national communities collaborating to free software.  This very document
 137 is written in English.  This will not change in the foreseeable future.
 138
 139 </P>
 140 <P>
 141 However, there is a strong appetite from national communities for
 142 having more software able to write using national language and habits,
 143 and there is an on-going effort to modify free software in such a way
 144 that it becomes able to do so.  The experiments driven so far raised
 145 an enthusiastic response from pretesters, so we believe that
 146 internationalization of free software is dedicated to succeed.
 147
 148 </P>
 149 <P>
 150 For suggestion clarifications, additions or corrections to this
 151 document, please e-mail to <TT>&lsquo;coordinator@translationproject.org&rsquo;</TT>.
 152
 153 </P>
 154
 155
 156 <H2><A NAME="SEC201" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC201">12.3  Discussions</A></H2>
 157
 158 <P>
 159 <STRONG> NOTE: </STRONG> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
 160 revised.
 161
 162 </P>
 163 <P>
 164 Facing this internationalization effort, a few users expressed their
 165 concerns.  Some of these doubts are presented and discussed, here.
 166
 167 </P>
 168
 169 <UL>
 170 <LI>Smaller groups
 171
 172 Some languages are not spoken by a very large number of people, so people
 173 speaking them sometimes consider that there may not be all that much
 174 demand such versions of free software packages.  Moreover, many people
 175 being <EM>into computers</EM>, in some countries, generally seem to prefer
 176 English versions of their software.
 177
 178 On the other end, people might enjoy their own language a lot, and be
 179 very motivated at providing to themselves the pleasure of having their
 180 beloved free software speaking their mother tongue.  They do themselves
 181 a personal favor, and do not pay that much attention to the number of
 182 people benefiting of their work.
 183
 184 <LI>Misinterpretation
 185
 186 Other users are shy to push forward their own language, seeing in this
 187 some kind of misplaced propaganda.  Someone thought there must be some
 188 users of the language over the networks pestering other people with it.
 189
 190 But any spoken language is worth localization, because there are
 191 people behind the language for whom the language is important and
 192 dear to their hearts.
 193
 194 <LI>Odd translations
 195
 196 The biggest problem is to find the right translations so that
 197 everybody can understand the messages.  Translations are usually a
 198 little odd.  Some people get used to English, to the extent they may
 199 find translations into their own language “rather pushy, obnoxious
 200 and sometimes even hilarious.”  As a French speaking man, I have
 201 the experience of those instruction manuals for goods, so poorly
 202 translated in French in Korea or Taiwan...
 203
 204 The fact is that we sometimes have to create a kind of national
 205 computer culture, and this is not easy without the collaboration of
 206 many people liking their mother tongue.  This is why translations are
 207 better achieved by people knowing and loving their own language, and
 208 ready to work together at improving the results they obtain.
 209
 210 <LI>Dependencies over the GPL or LGPL
 211
 212 Some people wonder if using GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> necessarily brings their
 213 package under the protective wing of the GNU General Public License or
 214 the GNU Library General Public License, when they do not want to make
 215 their program free, or want other kinds of freedom.  The simplest
 216 answer is “normally not”.
 217
 218 The <CODE>gettext-runtime</CODE> part of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>, i.e. the
 219 contents of <CODE>libintl</CODE>, is covered by the GNU Library General Public
 220 License.  The <CODE>gettext-tools</CODE> part of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>, i.e. the
 221 rest of the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> package, is covered by the GNU General
 222 Public License.
 223
 224 The mere marking of localizable strings in a package, or conditional
 225 inclusion of a few lines for initialization, is not really including
 226 GPL'ed or LGPL'ed code.  However, since the localization routines in
 227 <CODE>libintl</CODE> are under the LGPL, the LGPL needs to be considered.
 228 It gives the right to distribute the complete unmodified source of
 229 <CODE>libintl</CODE> even with non-free programs.  It also gives the right
 230 to use <CODE>libintl</CODE> as a shared library, even for non-free programs.
 231 But it gives the right to use <CODE>libintl</CODE> as a static library or
 232 to incorporate <CODE>libintl</CODE> into another library only to free
 233 software.
 234
 235 </UL>
 236
 237
 238
 239 <H2><A NAME="SEC202" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC202">12.4  Organization</A></H2>
 240
 241 <P>
 242 <STRONG> NOTE: </STRONG> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
 243 revised.
 244
 245 </P>
 246 <P>
 247 On a larger scale, the true solution would be to organize some kind of
 248 fairly precise set up in which volunteers could participate.  I gave
 249 some thought to this idea lately, and realize there will be some
 250 touchy points.  I thought of writing to Richard Stallman to launch
 251 such a project, but feel it might be good to shake out the ideas
 252 between ourselves first.  Most probably that Linux International has
 253 some experience in the field already, or would like to orchestrate
 254 the volunteer work, maybe.  Food for thought, in any case!
 255
 256 </P>
 257 <P>
 258 I guess we have to setup something early, somehow, that will help
 259 many possible contributors of the same language to interlock and avoid
 260 work duplication, and further be put in contact for solving together
 261 problems particular to their tongue (in most languages, there are many
 262 difficulties peculiar to translating technical English).  My Swedish
 263 contributor acknowledged these difficulties, and I'm well aware of
 264 them for French.
 265
 266 </P>
 267 <P>
 268 This is surely not a technical issue, but we should manage so the
 269 effort of locale contributors be maximally useful, despite the national
 270 team layer interface between contributors and maintainers.
 271
 272 </P>
 273 <P>
 274 The Translation Project needs some setup for coordinating language
 275 coordinators.  Localizing evolving programs will surely
 276 become a permanent and continuous activity in the free software community,
 277 once well started.
 278 The setup should be minimally completed and tested before GNU
 279 <CODE>gettext</CODE> becomes an official reality.  The e-mail address
 280 <TT>&lsquo;coordinator@translationproject.org&rsquo;</TT> has been set up for receiving
 281 offers from volunteers and general e-mail on these topics.  This address
 282 reaches the Translation Project coordinator.
 283
 284 </P>
 285
 286
 287
 288 <H3><A NAME="SEC203" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC203">12.4.1  Central Coordination</A></H3>
 289
 290 <P>
 291 I also think GNU will need sooner than it thinks, that someone set up
 292 a way to organize and coordinate these groups.  Some kind of group
 293 of groups.  My opinion is that it would be good that GNU delegates
 294 this task to a small group of collaborating volunteers, shortly.
 295 Perhaps in <TT>&lsquo;gnu.announce&rsquo;</TT> a list of this national committee's
 296 can be published.
 297
 298 </P>
 299 <P>
 300 My role as coordinator would simply be to refer to Ulrich any German
 301 speaking volunteer interested to localization of free software packages, and
 302 maybe helping national groups to initially organize, while maintaining
 303 national registries for until national groups are ready to take over.
 304 In fact, the coordinator should ease volunteers to get in contact with
 305 one another for creating national teams, which should then select
 306 one coordinator per language, or country (regionalized language).
 307 If well done, the coordination should be useful without being an
 308 overwhelming task, the time to put delegations in place.
 309
 310 </P>
 311
 312
 313 <H3><A NAME="SEC204" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC204">12.4.2  National Teams</A></H3>
 314
 315 <P>
 316 I suggest we look for volunteer coordinators/editors for individual
 317 languages.  These people will scan contributions of translation files
 318 for various programs, for their own languages, and will ensure high
 319 and uniform standards of diction.
 320
 321 </P>
 322 <P>
 323 From my current experience with other people in these days, those who
 324 provide localizations are very enthusiastic about the process, and are
 325 more interested in the localization process than in the program they
 326 localize, and want to do many programs, not just one.  This seems
 327 to confirm that having a coordinator/editor for each language is a
 328 good idea.
 329
 330 </P>
 331 <P>
 332 We need to choose someone who is good at writing clear and concise
 333 prose in the language in question.  That is hard--we can't check
 334 it ourselves.  So we need to ask a few people to judge each others'
 335 writing and select the one who is best.
 336
 337 </P>
 338 <P>
 339 I announce my prerelease to a few dozen people, and you would not
 340 believe all the discussions it generated already.  I shudder to think
 341 what will happen when this will be launched, for true, officially,
 342 world wide.  Who am I to arbitrate between two Czekolsovak users
 343 contradicting each other, for example?
 344
 345 </P>
 346 <P>
 347 I assume that your German is not much better than my French so that
 348 I would not be able to judge about these formulations.  What I would
 349 suggest is that for each language there is a group for people who
 350 maintain the PO files and judge about changes.  I suspect there will
 351 be cultural differences between how such groups of people will behave.
 352 Some will have relaxed ways, reach consensus easily, and have anyone
 353 of the group relate to the maintainers, while others will fight to
 354 death, organize heavy administrations up to national standards, and
 355 use strict channels.
 356
 357 </P>
 358 <P>
 359 The German team is putting out a good example.  Right now, they are
 360 maybe half a dozen people revising translations of each other and
 361 discussing the linguistic issues.  I do not even have all the names.
 362 Ulrich Drepper is taking care of coordinating the German team.
 363 He subscribed to all my pretest lists, so I do not even have to warn
 364 him specifically of incoming releases.
 365
 366 </P>
 367 <P>
 368 I'm sure, that is a good idea to get teams for each language working
 369 on translations.  That will make the translations better and more
 370 consistent.
 371
 372 </P>
 373
 374
 375
 376 <H4><A NAME="SEC205" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC205">12.4.2.1  Sub-Cultures</A></H4>
 377
 378 <P>
 379 Taking French for example, there are a few sub-cultures around computers
 380 which developed diverging vocabularies.  Picking volunteers here and
 381 there without addressing this problem in an organized way, soon in the
 382 project, might produce a distasteful mix of internationalized programs,
 383 and possibly trigger endless quarrels among those who really care.
 384
 385 </P>
 386 <P>
 387 Keeping some kind of unity in the way French localization of
 388 internationalized programs is achieved is a difficult (and delicate) job.
 389 Knowing the latin character of French people (:-), if we take this
 390 the wrong way, we could end up nowhere, or spoil a lot of energies.
 391 Maybe we should begin to address this problem seriously <EM>before</EM>
 392 GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> become officially published.  And I suspect that this
 393 means soon!
 394
 395 </P>
 396
 397
 398 <H4><A NAME="SEC206" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC206">12.4.2.2  Organizational Ideas</A></H4>
 399
 400 <P>
 401 I expect the next big changes after the official release.  Please note
 402 that I use the German translation of the short GPL message.  We need
 403 to set a few good examples before the localization goes out for true
 404 in the free software community.  Here are a few points to discuss:
 405
 406 </P>
 407
 408 <UL>
 409 <LI>
 410
 411 Each group should have one FTP server (at least one master).
 412
 413 <LI>
 414
 415 The files on the server should reflect the latest version (of
 416 course!) and it should also contain a RCS directory with the
 417 corresponding archives (I don't have this now).
 418
 419 <LI>
 420
 421 There should also be a ChangeLog file (this is more useful than the
 422 RCS archive but can be generated automatically from the later by
 423 Emacs).
 424
 425 <LI>
 426
 427 A <EM>core group</EM> should judge about questionable changes (for now
 428 this group consists solely by me but I ask some others occasionally;
 429 this also seems to work).
 430
 431 </UL>
 432
 433
 434
 435 <H3><A NAME="SEC207" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC207">12.4.3  Mailing Lists</A></H3>
 436
 437 <P>
 438 If we get any inquiries about GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>, send them on to:
 439
 440 </P>
 441
 442 <PRE>
 443 <TT>&lsquo;coordinator@translationproject.org&rsquo;</TT>
 444 </PRE>
 445
 446 <P>
 447 The <TT>&lsquo;*-pretest&rsquo;</TT> lists are quite useful to me, maybe the idea could
 448 be generalized to many GNU, and non-GNU packages.  But each maintainer
 449 his/her way!
 450
 451 </P>
 452 <P>
 453 Fran&ccedil;ois, we have a mechanism in place here at
 454 <TT>&lsquo;gnu.ai.mit.edu&rsquo;</TT> to track teams, support mailing lists for
 455 them and log members.  We have a slight preference that you use it.
 456 If this is OK with you, I can get you clued in.
 457
 458 </P>
 459 <P>
 460 Things are changing!  A few years ago, when Daniel Fekete and I
 461 asked for a mailing list for GNU localization, nested at the FSF, we
 462 were politely invited to organize it anywhere else, and so did we.
 463 For communicating with my pretesters, I later made a handful of
 464 mailing lists located at iro.umontreal.ca and administrated by
 465 <CODE>majordomo</CODE>.  These lists have been <EM>very</EM> dependable
 466 so far...
 467
 468 </P>
 469 <P>
 470 I suspect that the German team will organize itself a mailing list
 471 located in Germany, and so forth for other countries.  But before they
 472 organize for true, it could surely be useful to offer mailing lists
 473 located at the FSF to each national team.  So yes, please explain me
 474 how I should proceed to create and handle them.
 475
 476 </P>
 477 <P>
 478 We should create temporary mailing lists, one per country, to help
 479 people organize.  Temporary, because once regrouped and structured, it
 480 would be fair the volunteers from country bring back <EM>their</EM> list
 481 in there and manage it as they want.  My feeling is that, in the long
 482 run, each team should run its own list, from within their country.
 483 There also should be some central list to which all teams could
 484 subscribe as they see fit, as long as each team is represented in it.
 485
 486 </P>
 487
 488
 489 <H2><A NAME="SEC208" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC208">12.5  Information Flow</A></H2>
 490
 491 <P>
 492 <STRONG> NOTE: </STRONG> This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
 493 revised.
 494
 495 </P>
 496 <P>
 497 There will surely be some discussion about this messages after the
 498 packages are finally released.  If people now send you some proposals
 499 for better messages, how do you proceed?  Jim, please note that
 500 right now, as I put forward nearly a dozen of localizable programs, I
 501 receive both the translations and the coordination concerns about them.
 502
 503 </P>
 504 <P>
 505 If I put one of my things to pretest, Ulrich receives the announcement
 506 and passes it on to the German team, who make last minute revisions.
 507 Then he submits the translation files to me <EM>as the maintainer</EM>.
 508 For free packages I do not maintain, I would not even hear about it.
 509 This scheme could be made to work for the whole Translation Project,
 510 I think.  For security reasons, maybe Ulrich (national coordinators,
 511 in fact) should update central registry kept at the Translation Project
 512 (Jim, me, or Len's recruits) once in a while.
 513
 514 </P>
 515 <P>
 516 In December/January, I was aggressively ready to internationalize
 517 all of GNU, giving myself the duty of one small GNU package per week
 518 or so, taking many weeks or months for bigger packages.  But it does
 519 not work this way.  I first did all the things I'm responsible for.
 520 I've nothing against some missionary work on other maintainers, but
 521 I'm also loosing a lot of energy over it--same debates over again.
 522
 523 </P>
 524 <P>
 525 And when the first localized packages are released we'll get a lot of
 526 responses about ugly translations :-).  Surely, and we need to have
 527 beforehand a fairly good idea about how to handle the information
 528 flow between the national teams and the package maintainers.
 529
 530 </P>
 531 <P>
 532 Please start saving somewhere a quick history of each PO file.  I know
 533 for sure that the file format will change, allowing for comments.
 534 It would be nice that each file has a kind of log, and references for
 535 those who want to submit comments or gripes, or otherwise contribute.
 536 I sent a proposal for a fast and flexible format, but it is not
 537 receiving acceptance yet by the GNU deciders.  I'll tell you when I
 538 have more information about this.
 539
 540 </P>
 541
 542
 543 <H2><A NAME="SEC209" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC209">12.6  Translating plural forms</A></H2>
 544
 545 <P>
 546 <A NAME="IDX1111"></A>
 547 Suppose you are translating a PO file, and it contains an entry like this:
 548
 549 </P>
 550
 551 <PRE>
 552 #, c-format
 553 msgid "One file removed"
 554 msgid_plural "%d files removed"
 555 msgstr[0] ""
 556 msgstr[1] ""
 557 </PRE>
 558
 559 <P>
 560 What does this mean? How do you fill it in?
 561
 562 </P>
 563 <P>
 564 Such an entry denotes a message with plural forms, that is, a message where
 565 the text depends on a cardinal number.  The general form of the message,
 566 in English, is the <CODE>msgid_plural</CODE> line.  The <CODE>msgid</CODE> line is the
 567 English singular form, that is, the form for when the number is equal to 1.
 568 More details about plural forms are explained in section <A HREF="gettext_11.html#SEC188">11.2.6  Additional functions for plural forms</A>.
 569
 570 </P>
 571 <P>
 572 The first thing you need to look at is the <CODE>Plural-Forms</CODE> line in the
 573 header entry of the PO file.  It contains the number of plural forms and a
 574 formula.  If the PO file does not yet have such a line, you have to add it.
 575 It only depends on the language into which you are translating.  You can
 576 get this info by using the <CODE>msginit</CODE> command (see section <A HREF="gettext_6.html#SEC37">6  Creating a New PO File</A>) --
 577 it contains a database of known plural formulas -- or by asking other
 578 members of your translation team.
 579
 580 </P>
 581 <P>
 582 Suppose the line looks as follows:
 583
 584 </P>
 585
 586 <PRE>
 587 "Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 &#38;&#38; n%100!=11 ? 0 : n%10&#62;=2 &#38;&#38; n"
 588 "%10&#60;=4 &#38;&#38; (n%100&#60;10 || n%100&#62;=20) ? 1 : 2;\n"
 589 </PRE>
 590
 591 <P>
 592 It's logically one line; recall that the PO file formatting is allowed to
 593 break long lines so that each physical line fits in 80 monospaced columns.
 594
 595 </P>
 596 <P>
 597 The value of <CODE>nplurals</CODE> here tells you that there are three plural
 598 forms.  The first thing you need to do is to ensure that the entry contains
 599 an <CODE>msgstr</CODE> line for each of the forms:
 600
 601 </P>
 602
 603 <PRE>
 604 #, c-format
 605 msgid "One file removed"
 606 msgid_plural "%d files removed"
 607 msgstr[0] ""
 608 msgstr[1] ""
 609 msgstr[2] ""
 610 </PRE>
 611
 612 <P>
 613 Then translate the <CODE>msgid_plural</CODE> line and fill it in into each
 614 <CODE>msgstr</CODE> line:
 615
 616 </P>
 617
 618 <PRE>
 619 #, c-format
 620 msgid "One file removed"
 621 msgid_plural "%d files removed"
 622 msgstr[0] "%d slika uklonjenih"
 623 msgstr[1] "%d slika uklonjenih"
 624 msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"
 625 </PRE>
 626
 627 <P>
 628 Now you can refine the translation so that it matches the plural form.
 629 According to the formula above, <CODE>msgstr[0]</CODE> is used when the number
 630 ends in 1 but does not end in 11; <CODE>msgstr[1]</CODE> is used when the number
 631 ends in 2, 3, 4, but not in 12, 13, 14; and <CODE>msgstr[2]</CODE> is used in
 632 all other cases.  With this knowledge, you can refine the translations:
 633
 634 </P>
 635
 636 <PRE>
 637 #, c-format
 638 msgid "One file removed"
 639 msgid_plural "%d files removed"
 640 msgstr[0] "%d slika je uklonjena"
 641 msgstr[1] "%d datoteke uklonjenih"
 642 msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"
 643 </PRE>
 644
 645 <P>
 646 You noticed that in the English singular form (<CODE>msgid</CODE>) the number
 647 placeholder could be omitted and replaced by the numeral word “one”.
 648 Can you do this in your translation as well?
 649
 650 </P>
 651
 652 <PRE>
 653 msgstr[0] "jednom datotekom je uklonjen"
 654 </PRE>
 655
 656 <P>
 657 Well, it depends on whether <CODE>msgstr[0]</CODE> applies only to the number 1,
 658 or to other numbers as well.  If, according to the plural formula,
 659 <CODE>msgstr[0]</CODE> applies only to <CODE>n == 1</CODE>, then you can use the
 660 specialized translation without the number placeholder.  In our case,
 661 however, <CODE>msgstr[0]</CODE> also applies to the numbers 21, 31, 41, etc.,
 662 and therefore you cannot omit the placeholder.
 663
 664 </P>
 665
 666
 667 <H2><A NAME="SEC210" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC210">12.7  Prioritizing messages: How to determine which messages to translate first</A></H2>
 668
 669 <P>
 670 A translator sometimes has only a limited amount of time per week to
 671 spend on a package, and some packages have quite large message catalogs
 672 (over 1000 messages).  Therefore she wishes to translate the messages
 673 first that are the most visible to the user, or that occur most frequently.
 674 This section describes how to determine these "most urgent" messages.
 675 It also applies to determine the "next most urgent" messages after the
 676 message catalog has already been partially translated.
 677
 678 </P>
 679 <P>
 680 In a first step, she uses the programs like a user would do.  While she
 681 does this, the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> library logs into a file the not yet
 682 translated messages for which a translation was requested from the program.
 683
 684 </P>
 685 <P>
 686 In a second step, she uses the PO mode to translate precisely this set
 687 of messages.
 688
 689 </P>
 690 <P>
 691 <A NAME="IDX1112"></A>
 692 Here a more details.  The GNU <CODE>libintl</CODE> library (but not the
 693 corresponding functions in GNU <CODE>libc</CODE>) supports an environment variable
 694 <CODE>GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED</CODE>.  The GNU <CODE>libintl</CODE> library will
 695 log into this file the messages for which <CODE>gettext()</CODE> and related
 696 functions couldn't find the translation.  If the file doesn't exist, it
 697 will be created as needed.  On systems with GNU <CODE>libc</CODE> a shared library
 698 <SAMP>&lsquo;preloadable_libintl.so&rsquo;</SAMP> is provided that can be used with the ELF
 699 <SAMP>&lsquo;LD_PRELOAD&rsquo;</SAMP> mechanism.
 700
 701 </P>
 702 <P>
 703 So, in the first step, the translator uses these commands on systems with
 704 GNU <CODE>libc</CODE>:
 705
 706 </P>
 707
 708 <PRE>
 709 $ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/preloadable_libintl.so
 710 $ export LD_PRELOAD
 711 $ GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED=$HOME/gettextlogused
 712 $ export GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED
 713 </PRE>
 714
 715 <P>
 716 and these commands on other systems:
 717
 718 </P>
 719
 720 <PRE>
 721 $ GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED=$HOME/gettextlogused
 722 $ export GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED
 723 </PRE>
 724
 725 <P>
 726 Then she uses and peruses the programs.  (It is a good and recommended
 727 practice to use the programs for which you provide translations: it
 728 gives you the needed context.)  When done, she removes the environment
 729 variables:
 730
 731 </P>
 732
 733 <PRE>
 734 $ unset LD_PRELOAD
 735 $ unset GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED
 736 </PRE>
 737
 738 <P>
 739 The second step starts with removing duplicates:
 740
 741 </P>
 742
 743 <PRE>
 744 $ msguniq $HOME/gettextlogused &#62; missing.po
 745 </PRE>
 746
 747 <P>
 748 The result is a PO file, but needs some preprocessing before a PO file editor
 749 can be used with it.  First, it is a multi-domain PO file, containing
 750 messages from many translation domains.  Second, it lacks all translator
 751 comments and source references.  Here is how to get a list of the affected
 752 translation domains:
 753
 754 </P>
 755
 756 <PRE>
 757 $ sed -n -e 's,^domain "\(.*\)"$,\1,p' &#60; missing.po | sort | uniq
 758 </PRE>
 759
 760 <P>
 761 Then the translator can handle the domains one by one.  For simplicity,
 762 let's use environment variables to denote the language, domain and source
 763 package.
 764
 765 </P>
 766
 767 <PRE>
 768 $ lang=nl             # your language
 769 $ domain=coreutils    # the name of the domain to be handled
 770 $ package=/usr/src/gnu/coreutils-4.5.4   # the package where it comes from
 771 </PRE>
 772
 773 <P>
 774 She takes the latest copy of <TT>&lsquo;$lang.po&rsquo;</TT> from the Translation Project,
 775 or from the package (in most cases, <TT>&lsquo;$package/po/$lang.po&rsquo;</TT>), or
 776 creates a fresh one if she's the first translator (see section <A HREF="gettext_6.html#SEC37">6  Creating a New PO File</A>).
 777 She then uses the following commands to mark the not urgent messages as
 778 "obsolete".  (This doesn't mean that these messages - translated and
 779 untranslated ones - will go away.  It simply means that the PO file editor
 780 will ignore them in the following editing session.)
 781
 782 </P>
 783
 784 <PRE>
 785 $ msggrep --domain=$domain missing.po | grep -v '^domain' \
 786   &#62; $domain-missing.po
 787 $ msgattrib --set-obsolete --ignore-file $domain-missing.po $domain.$lang.po \
 788   &#62; $domain.$lang-urgent.po
 789 </PRE>
 790
 791 <P>
 792 The she translates <TT>&lsquo;$domain.$lang-urgent.po&rsquo;</TT> by use of a PO file editor
 793 (see section <A HREF="gettext_8.html#SEC55">8  Editing PO Files</A>).
 794 (FIXME: I don't know whether <CODE>KBabel</CODE> and <CODE>gtranslator</CODE> also
 795 preserve obsolete messages, as they should.)
 796 Finally she restores the not urgent messages (with their earlier
 797 translations, for those which were already translated) through this command:
 798
 799 </P>
 800
 801 <PRE>
 802 $ msgmerge --no-fuzzy-matching $domain.$lang-urgent.po $package/po/$domain.pot \
 803   &#62; $domain.$lang.po
 804 </PRE>
 805
 806 <P>
 807 Then she can submit <TT>&lsquo;$domain.$lang.po&rsquo;</TT> and proceed to the next domain.
 808
 809 </P>
 810 <P><HR><P>
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