| blob | 28d38c76fd68364a19f8ef42601e0421bd9039f1 |
1 Notes on the Free Translation Project
2 *************************************
4 Free software is going international! The Free Translation Project
5 is a way to get maintainers of free software, translators, and users all
6 together, so that will gradually become able to speak many languages.
7 A few packages already provide translations for their messages.
9 If you found this `ABOUT-NLS' file inside a distribution, you may
10 assume that the distributed package does use GNU `gettext' internally,
11 itself available at your nearest GNU archive site. But you do *not*
12 need to install GNU `gettext' prior to configuring, installing or using
13 this package with messages translated.
15 Installers will find here some useful hints. These notes also
16 explain how users should proceed for getting the programs to use the
17 available translations. They tell how people wanting to contribute and
18 work at translations should contact the appropriate team.
20 When reporting bugs in the `intl/' directory or bugs which may be
21 related to internationalization, you should tell about the version of
22 `gettext' which is used. The information can be found in the
23 `intl/VERSION' file, in internationalized packages.
25 One advise in advance
26 =====================
28 If you want to exploit the full power of internationalization, you
29 should configure it using
31 ./configure --with-included-gettext
33 to force usage of internationalizing routines provided within this
34 package, despite the existence of internationalizing capabilities in the
35 operating system where this package is being installed. So far, only
36 the `gettext' implementation in the GNU C library version 2 provides as
37 many features (such as locale alias or message inheritance) as the
38 implementation here. It is also not possible to offer this additional
39 functionality on top of a `catgets' implementation. Future versions of
40 GNU `gettext' will very likely convey even more functionality. So it
41 might be a good idea to change to GNU `gettext' as soon as possible.
43 So you need not provide this option if you are using GNU libc 2 or
44 you have installed a recent copy of the GNU gettext package with the
45 included `libintl'.
47 INSTALL Matters
48 ===============
50 Some packages are "localizable" when properly installed; the
51 programs they contain can be made to speak your own native language.
52 Most such packages use GNU `gettext'. Other packages have their own
53 ways to internationalization, predating GNU `gettext'.
55 By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of
56 messages. It will automatically detect whether the system provides
57 usable `catgets' (if using this is selected by the installer) or
58 `gettext' functions. If neither is available, the GNU `gettext' own
59 library will be used. This library is wholly contained within this
60 package, usually in the `intl/' subdirectory, so prior installation of
61 the GNU `gettext' package is *not* required. Installers may use
62 special options at configuration time for changing the default
63 behaviour. The commands:
65 ./configure --with-included-gettext
66 ./configure --with-catgets
67 ./configure --disable-nls
69 will respectively bypass any pre-existing `catgets' or `gettext' to use
70 the internationalizing routines provided within this package, enable
71 the use of the `catgets' functions (if found on the locale system), or
72 else, *totally* disable translation of messages.
74 When you already have GNU `gettext' installed on your system and run
75 configure without an option for your new package, `configure' will
76 probably detect the previously built and installed `libintl.a' file and
77 will decide to use this. This might be not what is desirable. You
78 should use the more recent version of the GNU `gettext' library. I.e.
79 if the file `intl/VERSION' shows that the library which comes with this
80 package is more recent, you should use
82 ./configure --with-included-gettext
84 to prevent auto-detection.
86 By default the configuration process will not test for the `catgets'
87 function and therefore they will not be used. The reasons are already
88 given above: the emulation on top of `catgets' cannot provide all the
89 extensions provided by the GNU `gettext' library. If you nevertheless
90 want to use the `catgets' functions use
92 ./configure --with-catgets
94 to enable the test for `catgets' (this causes no harm if `catgets' is
95 not available on your system). If you really select this option we
96 would like to hear about the reasons because we cannot think of any
97 good one ourself.
99 Internationalized packages have usually many `po/LL.po' files, where
100 LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language. Unless
101 translations have been forbidden at `configure' time by using the
102 `--disable-nls' switch, all available translations are installed
103 together with the package. However, the environment variable `LINGUAS'
104 may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set.
105 `LINGUAS' should then contain a space separated list of two-letter
106 codes, stating which languages are allowed.
108 Using This Package
109 ==================
111 As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, you
112 only have to set the `LANG' environment variable to the appropriate
113 ISO 639 `LL' two-letter code prior to using the programs in the
114 package. For example, let's suppose that you speak German. At the
115 shell prompt, merely execute `setenv LANG de' (in `csh'),
116 `export LANG; LANG=de' (in `sh') or `export LANG=de' (in `bash'). This
117 can be done from your `.login' or `.profile' file, once and for all.
119 An operating system might already offer message localization for
120 many of its programs, while other programs have been installed locally
121 with the full capabilities of GNU `gettext'. Just using `gettext'
122 extended syntax for `LANG' would break proper localization of already
123 available operating system programs. In this case, users should set
124 both `LANGUAGE' and `LANG' variables in their environment, as programs
125 using GNU `gettext' give preference to `LANGUAGE'. For example, some
126 Swedish users would rather read translations in German than English for
127 when Swedish is not available. This is easily accomplished by setting
128 `LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while leaving `LANG' to `sv'.
130 Translating Teams
131 =================
133 For the Free Translation Project to be a success, we need interested
134 people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also
135 able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language.
136 Each translation team has its own mailing list, courtesy of Linux
137 International. You may reach your translation team at the address
138 `LL@li.org', replacing LL by the two-letter ISO 639 code for your
139 language. Language codes are *not* the same as the country codes given
140 in ISO 3166. The following translation teams exist, as of December
141 1997:
143 Chinese `zh', Czech `cs', Danish `da', Dutch `nl', English `en',
144 Esperanto `eo', Finnish `fi', French `fr', German `de', Hungarian
145 `hu', Irish `ga', Italian `it', Indonesian `id', Japanese `ja',
146 Korean `ko', Latin `la', Norwegian `no', Persian `fa', Polish
147 `pl', Portuguese `pt', Russian `ru', Slovenian `sl', Spanish `es',
148 Swedish `sv', and Turkish `tr'.
150 For example, you may reach the Chinese translation team by writing to
151 `zh@li.org'.
153 If you'd like to volunteer to *work* at translating messages, you
154 should become a member of the translating team for your own language.
155 The subscribing address is *not* the same as the list itself, it has
156 `-request' appended. For example, speakers of Swedish can send a
157 message to `sv-request@li.org', having this message body:
159 subscribe
161 Keep in mind that team members are expected to participate
162 *actively* in translations, or at solving translational difficulties,
163 rather than merely lurking around. If your team does not exist yet and
164 you want to start one, or if you are unsure about what to do or how to
165 get started, please write to `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to reach the
166 coordinator for all translator teams.
168 The English team is special. It works at improving and uniformizing
169 the terminology in use. Proven linguistic skill are praised more than
170 programming skill, here.
172 Available Packages
173 ==================
175 Languages are not equally supported in all packages. The following
176 matrix shows the current state of internationalization, as of December
177 1997. The matrix shows, in regard of each package, for which languages
178 PO files have been submitted to translation coordination.
180 Ready PO files cs da de en es fi fr it ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv
181 .----------------------------------------------------.
182 bash | [] [] [] | 3
183 bison | [] [] [] | 3
184 clisp | [] [] [] [] | 4
185 cpio | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
186 diffutils | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
187 enscript | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
188 fileutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 10
189 findutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9
190 flex | [] [] [] [] | 4
191 gcal | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
192 gettext | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 12
193 grep | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 10
194 hello | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11
195 id-utils | [] [] [] | 3
196 indent | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
197 libc | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 7
198 m4 | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
199 make | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
200 music | [] [] | 2
201 ptx | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
202 recode | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9
203 sh-utils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
204 sharutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
205 tar | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11
206 texinfo | [] [] [] | 3
207 textutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9
208 wdiff | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
209 `----------------------------------------------------'
210 17 languages cs da de en es fi fr it ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv
211 27 packages 6 4 25 1 18 1 26 2 1 12 20 9 19 7 4 7 17 179
213 Some counters in the preceding matrix are higher than the number of
214 visible blocks let us expect. This is because a few extra PO files are
215 used for implementing regional variants of languages, or language
216 dialects.
218 For a PO file in the matrix above to be effective, the package to
219 which it applies should also have been internationalized and
220 distributed as such by its maintainer. There might be an observable
221 lag between the mere existence a PO file and its wide availability in a
222 distribution.
224 If December 1997 seems to be old, you may fetch a more recent copy
225 of this `ABOUT-NLS' file on most GNU archive sites.