use the new flexcat's source description file

[AROS.git] / tools / flexcat / doc / FlexCat.history

                               F L E X C A T

  ========================================================================

            The ultimate catalog processor and source generator

            (C) 1993-1999 by Jochen Wiedmann and Marcin Orlowski
               (C) 2002-2006 by the FlexCat Open Source Team
 
  ========================================================================



  * FlexCat 2.7 (DD.MM.2006)

    - Improved source code portability.  <Pavel>

    - Makefile improved to work on every system, both Amiga and non-Amiga.
      <Pavel>

    - Added MorphOS compatibility.  <Pavel>

    - Added Greek and Turkish localizations.  <Pavel>

    - Added Storm C compatibility.  <Pavel>

    - Localization files revised and brought up to date.  <Pavel>

    - Added "Hardcode_c.sd" template.  <Pavel>

    - Fixed bug: "Extra characters" was always reported at "#language"
      line when using the NOLANGTOLOWER option.  <Pavel>

    - Fixed bug: missing preferences file led to incorrect settings due
      to a bug in the preferences loading routine.  <Pavel>


  * FlexCat 2.6.6 (15.2.2003)

    - Revised the compatibility for non-Amiga systems.  <Ondrej>

    - Cleaned up sources and made them sexier.  <Ondrej>

    - Removed some obsolete code.  <Ondrej>

    - If FlexCat is used to generate any source, the basename is needed
      but sometimes is not defined.  Now it is determined only for this
      sort of operation.  <Ondrej>

    - More binaries: Amiga m68k, Amiga ppc, Linux i386, Linux m68k,
      Linux ppc, Windows.  <Ondrej>

    - Changed behaviour of #version in catalog description.  Only the
      version number can be specified, no revision or other numbers are
      allowed anymore.  <Ondrej>

    - Fixed compatibility with GCC on non-Amiga systems.  Sources are
      compilable now.  <Ondrej>

    - If language environment is not specified (like on Un*x systems),
      the "nolanguage" string is taken as language.  <Ondrej>

    - Changed compare function (stricmp, strnicmp) to Stricmp and Strnicmp,
      and implemented from GCC project libiberty.  <Ondrej>

    - Changed default localization to macro which is defined in flexcat.h.

    - Fixed nasty bug for compatibility with CatComp when using the syntax
      "FlexCat test.cd test.ct CATALOG test.catalog".  <Ondrej>


  * FlexCat 2.6.5 (23.1.2003)

    - Static definition of string inside the function createct() totally
      damaged some other strings.  <Ondrej>

    - Added support for #version and #basename directives.  This means
      that if the .cd file contains the #basename, both the .ct and .catalog
      files can be generated automatically by just omitting any reference
      to them at the command line.  #basename is the base name of the
      catalog; for example, if basename is defined as "MyProg1", the
      translation "MyProg1.ct" can be easily created, with "MyProg1.catalog"
      as resulting catalog.  In other words, if #basename is defined in a
      .cd file,

         -> "FlexCat test.cd NEWCTFILE" will generate the file as
            <#basename>_<$language>.ct, with the name of the catalog
            inserted in the ## version tag ("$VER: <#basename>.ct")

         -> "FlexCat test.cd test.ct CATALOG" will generate the file
            <#basename>.catalog

      #version is a string representing the version number which is
      inserted in the .ct file.  If #version is defined in a .ct file
      and a new .ct file is created, the #version is inserted in the
      ## version tag as version string.

    - Added support for AmigaOS 4.0 codeset fetching from locale structure
      of the default locale.  It's triggered automatically when
      locale.library > V47.

    - Added #header in catalog description as not faulty directive.

    - Added support for the #lengthbytes directive.

    - Added support for hexadecimal numbering of string IDs.

    - Added two new strings to catalog.


  * FlexCat 2.6.4 (7.1.2003)

    - All the generated files now have the execute ("e") bit cleared
      (Amiga only).

    - #ifdef/#endif directives found in the .cd files are now inserted
      as comments in the .ct file.

    - Added Magyar translation, thanks to Marton Dosa.  <Ondrej>


  * FlexCat 2.6.3 (28.11.2002)

    - Now ignores all lines in .cd file that start with "#ifdef" or "#endif",
      which are used for creating C headers and sources from .cd file.


  * FlexCat 2.6.2 (20.11.2002)

    - Added new parameter NOAUTODATE which prevents FlexCat from inserting
      the current date in the $VER: string of the catalog; the date
      specified in the .ct file will be used instead.


  * FlexCat 2.6.1 (18.11.2002)

    - FlexCat now recognizes the 'codeset' parameter in .ct files, which
      is needed for the AmigaOS 4 translation process.  <Ondrej>


  * FlexCat 2.6 (6.8.2002)

    - FlexCat now updates the date when creating the .catalog file from
      the .ct, no need for $TODAY anymore.

    - FlexCat now even corrects the filename in the version string:
      '<file>.ct' becomes '<file>.catalog'.

    - Some fixes to the English docs.

    - Docs can now be compiled from the makefile.

    - When creating a blank .ct from a .cd file, the version gets copied
      from the .cd file and the wrong warning is removed.  <Stefan>


  * FlexCat 2.5b (19.3.2002)

    - Added GG patchfile, thanks to Martin Blom <martin@blom.org>.


  * FlexCat 2.5 (14.2.2002)

    - When using $TODAY, the date was one day ahead (tomorrow ;).
      Fixed by replacing gmtime() with localtime().  <DMX>


  * FlexCat 2.4 (28.11.1999)

    - FlexCat is now portable!  Thanks to the Hardcode.sd{tm} unique
      technology, you can now try to compile FlexCat under any OS
      (both big and little endians are supported).  Read "developer.readme"
      for details.

    - When $TODAY was used, sometimes garbage could be written instead of
      the $VER: string due to a memory block being freed before being
      written to.

    - Added ##rem command to .sd file handling.  As you have probably
      guessed, it's just a remark.  The goal (at least for me) is that
      ##rem lines won't appear in source code created from the .sd file.

    - Added manual catalog open/close for compilers that lack autoinit/
      exit functions.

    - Updated French translation, thanks to Hervé Dupont
      <herve.dupont@nordnet.fr>.

    - Added new NOSPACE switch to avoid the extra space char usually
      inserted by FlexCat to separate the comment introducer ';' from
      the comment itself.

    - Source descriptor for HSPascal by Artur Karpunin <woody8@kki.net.pl>
      is now available.

    - New archive "FlexCat_Demos", full ;-) of example source code for
      various programming languages; C, HSPascal and ARexx examples are
      recently available.

    - Contents of "Contribution" drawer moved to "FlexCat_Demos" archive.

    - Added detailed tutorial (in Polish for now) about the whole
      localization process (incl. examples).


  * FlexCat 2.3 (19.5.1999)

    - The trailing ellipsis detector was broken (reported by Marco De Vitis
      <marco.dvv@flashnet.it>).

    - Seems that I updated the English manual for 2.2, but forgot to create
      a .guide file out of the texinfo source.

    - Fixed manual to say "1999" instead of "1998", and fixed .cd file to
      show proper arguments when help ("FlexCat ?") is requested (thanks
      to Hervé Dupont <herve.dupont@nordnet.fr>).

    - Added Spanish translation by Sergio Martín Rodríguez <smartin@kaos.es>
      and Tomás J. Cantó <tjcanto@redestb.es>.


  * FlexCat 2.2 (14.4.1999)

    - FlexCat can now copy the "***NEW***" markers (or whatever replacement
      has been defined by the user) from the old .ct file to the new one
      while upgrading an already existing translation ("FlexCat CD cd_file
      CT old_translation NEWCTFILE new_translation"); upgrading an unfinished
      translation should be now a much smoother process.  To complement this
      new feature, two new options have been added (and made available in
      the preferences as well): COPYMSGNEW/S (not used by default to avoid
      possible problems) and OLDMSGNEW/K, that sets the string that marked
      new strings in the old .ct file (defaults to "***NEW***", so you
      don't need to specify it unless you used a different marker than the
      default).  NOTE: FlexCat automatically appends "; " to the string!
      Thanks to Christian Hattemer <Chris@heaven.riednet.wh.tu-darmstadt.de>
      for the suggestion.

    - The long awaited check for trailing ellipsis is now implemented.

    - FlexCat now expands the above feature, and checks for trailing spaces,
      as it appears to be the most commonly overlooked trailing character
      ever...

    - Added missing #endif in source code, that disallowed easy StormC or
      non-Amiga compilations (reported by Christian Hattemer).

    - Every line of original string that FlexCat puts in the created .ct
      file is now prefixed by "; ".  Previously, only the first line had
      a space between the semicolon and the main text (reported by
      Christian Hattemer).

    - Source descriptors and other FlexCat related goodies for StormC
      by Christian Hattemer are now available from any Aminet mirror
      (dev/c/Storm_FlexCat.lha) or from his homepage:
      http://www.riednet.wh.tu-darmstadt.de/~chris/

    - New Slovenian translation, by Damir Arh <damir.arh@guest.arnes.si>.

    - Updated catalogs:

         -> Swedish, by Magnus Holmgren <lear@algonet.se>
         -> Serbian, by Ljubomir Jankovic <lurch@beotel.yu>
         -> Dutch, by Leon Woestenberg <leon@stack.nl>
         -> German, by Christian Hattemer
            <Chris@heaven.riednet.wh.tu-darmstadt.de>

    - English manual updated to match the latest changes.


  * FlexCat 2.1 (11.10.1998)

    - New source descriptor for E programmers (E32e.sd) by Sven Steiniger
      <ss37@irz301.inf.tu-dresden.de>.

    - Fixed the problem that C:Version had with FlexCat (because of the many
      internal $VERsion strings, the one that mattered to c:Version wasn't
      the first one in the executable file).

    - The SDDIR path defined in FlexCat.prefs was always ignored.  Fixed.
      (Reported by Magnus Holmgren).

    - Improved FLUSH function, which now flushes catalogs only.  (Suggested
      by Magnus Holmgren).

    - FlexCat now adds one space character while writing "old" strings in the
      .ct file, as CatComp does.

    - Source code released.  See source readme file for more details.


  * FlexCat 2.0 (25.2.1998)

    - Unfortunately, 2.0 does not mean any new groundbreaking technology
      has been implemented; it is just the next version number FlexCat
      should have...

    - Added a workaround for problems some people may encounter while
      creating catalogs for languages with a corrupted conversion table
      (which is part of the .language driver).  FlexCat uses utility.library
      to convert ##language names to lowercase, which leads to wrong strings
      with e.g. the Czech language.  Use NOLANGTOLOWER (either at the CLI
      or the prefs) to tell FlexCat not to lowercase the name.  But remember
      to keep it lowercased manually!

    - FlexCat now operates with buffered I/O.  This may increase the overall
      performance; however, it's not a must, so you can use the NOBUFFEREDIO
      switch to fall back to the old polling mode.  Please test the overall
      performance and tell me the results!  The I/O buffer is now 2048 bytes
      long.

    - While creating a new .ct file, FlexCat takes the contents of the
      $language system variable as the #language parameter, if possible.

    - Fixed bug that caused writes to random memory under some very rare
      circumstances.

    - Added ARexx.sd source descriptor, thanks to Kai Norhausen
      <kn@tribal.line.org>.

    - Added stuff contributed by users.  Look at the contents of the
      "Contribution" drawer!

    - Renumbered the version of catalog files.  The most recent catalog
      version is 2.0, 1.x is now outdated.

    - Updated the French catalog, thanks to Julien `GiZmO' Wilk
      <wilkj@esiee.fr>.

    - Finnish translation updated by Mika Lundell <c71829@uwasa.fi>.

    - Dutch translation by Leon Woestenberg <leon@stack.nl>.

    - Norwegian translation thanks to Eivind Olsen <eivindo@bgnett.no>.

    - Italian catalog updated by Luca Nora <ln546991@silab.dsi.unimi.it>
      and Giovanni Addabbo <gaddabbo@imar.it>.

    - Portuguese translation updated by Frederico Borges
      <famb@mail.telepac.pt> and Alexandre Gabriel <chryse@mail.telepac.pt>.

    - New Spanish translation by Marcos Broc <amiga187@arrakis.es> and
      Samuel Aguilera <slyguy@mx2.redestb.es>.

    - Croatian translation by Mladen Ili¹inoviæ <milisino@jagor.srce.hr>.


  * FlexCat 1.9 (1.8.1997)

    - Now you can use special $TODAY attribute in your $VER string - when
      the catalog is created, $TODAY will be replaced by the current date
      (note, however, that only the first occurance will be replaced,
      and the string is CASE SENSITIVE!).  If you want your version
      strings to always get a recent date, use something like
      "$VER: test.catalog 3.0 ($TODAY)"

    - Added FlexCat preferences.  To define your own defaults, set the
      environment variable "flexcat.prefs" with the contents matching
      the following template:

         SDDIR/K,MSG_NEW/K,WARNCTGAPS/S,NOOPTIM/S,FILL/S,FLUSH/S,NOBEEP/S,
           QUIET/S

      Please note that FlexCat uses ReadArgs() to parse the preferences, so
      you must place all the items in one line.

    - If you use FlexCat to update old translations, you probably were
      missing some sort of marker to let you easily spot the new strings.
      This is now implemented - by default "***NEW***" is used, but you
      can change it by using the FlexCat preferences.

    - The QUIET switch used to suppress error messages.  Fixed.

    - New C source descriptor Cat2h_?.sd.  Read the manual or
      Lib/Cat2h.readme for more information.

    - Version of updated catalogs bumped to 2.5.

    - Portugese catalog, thanks to Frederico Borges <famb@mail.telepac.pt>
      and Alexandre Gabriel <chryse@mail.telepac.pt>.

    - Swedish translation of the FlexCat manual, thanks to Magnus Holmgren
      <lear@algonet.se>.

    - Spanish translation reworked by Marcos Broc <amiga187@arrakis.es> and
      Samuel Aguilera <slyguy92@arrakis.es>.

    - Now FlexCat calls DisplayBeep() when any error or warning happens
      (but don't worry, it's smart enough, so you won't experience any
      Beep() bombing ;).  You can shut it up with the NOBEEP switch if you
      want.

    - Previous releases had problems with comment lines ending with \'s,
      which made FlexCat think it was a multiline string.  It isn't that
      dumb now.

    - You can now use octal, decimal and hexadecimal (e.g. "0x20") numbers
      for all the FlexCat numeric arguments (like ##version) as well as
      for (ID/MIN/MAX), ##codeset and others.

    - New FLUSH switch added.  If enabled, all unused catalogs (but also
      libraries, fonts, device drivers, etc.) will be flushed from memory
      whenever a new catalog is written to disk.  This means that FLUSH
      only works when the CATALOG keyword is used as well.

    - New C source descriptors. catcomp_h.sd creates sources (almost)
      identical to CatComp's, but expanded for multi-catalog support.
      With this descriptor you can easily handle more than one catalog
      in your program.  NOTE:  for compatibility reasons, other descriptors
      remain unchanged (however, additional multicatalog versions may appear
      in the next release).

    - FlexCat does not accept an empty ##language argument any more.

    - New FILL switch.  This feature is highly useful for translators,
      and probably for them only.  Normally, when you're working on a
      new translation, some of the strings remain untranslated because of
      the very nature of a "work in progress".  Unfortunately all catalog
      tools write all these empty strings into the catalog file, which will
      cause empty buttons, menus or simmilar things to appear whenever you
      check your unfinished translation with the program, which isn't very
      nice and may even lead to crashes and other unexpected results.
      Using FILL you can force FlexCat to fill all the empty slots
      (strings from .ct file) with the original string taken from the
      catalog description, avoiding empty GUIs, etc.  NOTE: this option is
      only for testing purposes.  Final catalogs should of course always
      be created without using this switch!

    - English manual is now up to date.

    - Added %a, %t and %z operands for source descriptors.  See (probably
      English and Swedish only, for now) the manual for detailed information.


  * FlexCat 1.8 (17.2.1997)

    - Fixed bug causing bad handling of octal numbers.  Now FlexCat can
      tell \0333 apart from \333 and treats it as [ESC][3].  It will also
      correctly handle octal numbers shorter than 3 digits, e.g. \33
      will be taken as \033.  Be careful, as \333 will not be taken
      as [ESC][3] as it's a valid single octal number!

    - Added new NOOPTIM switch.

    - Now FlexCat is able to handle and parse texts like "This is a test\\"
      without any problems, which was previously taken as multiline
      text due to the trailing '\'.  Now FlexCat is smart enough
      (CatComp isn't yet ;-) to cope with it.

    - Added support for string ID incrementors, defined as (+VALUE//).

    - Now allows you to create a translation file even if the .cd contains
      neither ##version nor ##rcsid.  In this case it will create a default
      header as CatComp does (the "Missing catalog translation version... "
      message should now be taken as a warning, not as an error).

    - Added the new QUIET switch.

    - Additional catalogs from members of the Amiga Translators' Organization
      <http://ato.vapor.com/>:

         -> Serbian translation by Ljubomir Jankovic
            <lurch@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu>
         -> Czech translation by Vit Sindlar <xsindl00@stud.fee.vutbr.cz>
         -> Svedish translation by Magnus Holmgren <lear@algonet.se> and
            Hjalmar Wikholm <hjalle@canit.se>
         -> Finnish translation updated by Mika Lundell <c71829@uwasa.fi>
         -> Italian translation reworked by Luca Nora
            <ln546991@silab.dsi.unimi.it> and Giovanni Addabbo
            <gaddabbo@imar.net>


  * FlexCat 1.7 (??.??.????)

    - Added "#rcsid" and "#name".

    - Fixed two Enforcer hits which appeared when the .ct file had gaps.


  * FlexCat 1.6 (??.??.????)

    - Removed GetString() calls due to the new C source descriptions.


  * FlexCat 1.5 (??.??.????)

    - Added new WARNCTGAPS option.

    - Added #chunk to catalog translations.


  * FlexCat 1.4 (??.??.????)

    - Added the environment variable FLEXCAT_SDDIR.  It uses AutoC_c.sd
      and AutoC_h.sd now and is thus compilable with DICE and SAS/C only.

    - Fixed a problem in stringtype Oberon: binary characters should be
      like \000 and not \0.

    - Fixed a problem in stringtype E: \e was written as \033.

    - Added %f* (source description filename) and %o* (source filename)
      to source descriptions.


  * FlexCat 1.3 (??.??.????)

    - Fixed a bug that caused FlexCat to hang if a catalog translation
      was updated and a string was missing in the catalog description.

    - Fixed a bug that caused FlexCat to create invalid catalogs,
      probably.  Looks like locale.library expects a completely different
      behaviour when padding version and language strings and the real
      catalog strings.

    - Added %e to source descriptions.


  * FlexCat 1.2 (??.??.????)

    - Fixed a bug in the E source generator: " was converted into \" and '
      was not converted.


  * FlexCat 1.1 (??.??.????)

    - Fixed two bugs: FlexCat didn't notice if an ID was defined twice
      (the C compiler did later...) and using language strings like
      "français" did not work because of the cedilla.

    - Introduced E support, thanks to Lionel Vintenat.


  * FlexCat 1.01 (??.??.????)

    - Fixed a bug: the length of the source string was used to check for
      the stringlen instead of the real stringlen.


  * FlexCat 1.0 (31.6.1993)

    Initial release.

                         ------------------------