release/src/router/gettext/gettext-tools/doc/gettext_14.html

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   6 <TITLE>GNU gettext utilities - 14  Concluding Remarks</TITLE>
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  13 <H1><A NAME="SEC287" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC287">14  Concluding Remarks</A></H1>
  14
  15 <P>
  16 We would like to conclude this GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> manual by presenting
  17 an history of the Translation Project so far.  We finally give
  18 a few pointers for those who want to do further research or readings
  19 about Native Language Support matters.
  20
  21 </P>
  22
  23
  24
  25 <H2><A NAME="SEC288" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC288">14.1  History of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE></A></H2>
  26 <P>
  27 <A NAME="IDX1160"></A>
  28
  29 </P>
  30 <P>
  31 Internationalization concerns and algorithms have been informally
  32 and casually discussed for years in GNU, sometimes around GNU
  33 <CODE>libc</CODE>, maybe around the incoming <CODE>Hurd</CODE>, or otherwise
  34 (nobody clearly remembers).  And even then, when the work started for
  35 real, this was somewhat independently of these previous discussions.
  36
  37 </P>
  38 <P>
  39 This all began in July 1994, when Patrick D'Cruze had the idea and
  40 initiative of internationalizing version 3.9.2 of GNU <CODE>fileutils</CODE>.
  41 He then asked Jim Meyering, the maintainer, how to get those changes
  42 folded into an official release.  That first draft was full of
  43 <CODE>#ifdef</CODE>s and somewhat disconcerting, and Jim wanted to find
  44 nicer ways.  Patrick and Jim shared some tries and experimentations
  45 in this area.  Then, feeling that this might eventually have a deeper
  46 impact on GNU, Jim wanted to know what standards were, and contacted
  47 Richard Stallman, who very quickly and verbally described an overall
  48 design for what was meant to become <CODE>glocale</CODE>, at that time.
  49
  50 </P>
  51 <P>
  52 Jim implemented <CODE>glocale</CODE> and got a lot of exhausting feedback
  53 from Patrick and Richard, of course, but also from Mitchum DSouza
  54 (who wrote a <CODE>catgets</CODE>-like package), Roland McGrath, maybe David
  55 MacKenzie, Fran&ccedil;ois Pinard, and Paul Eggert, all pushing and
  56 pulling in various directions, not always compatible, to the extent
  57 that after a couple of test releases, <CODE>glocale</CODE> was torn apart.
  58 In particular, Paul Eggert -- always keeping an eye on developments
  59 in Solaris -- advocated the use of the <CODE>gettext</CODE> API over
  60 <CODE>glocale</CODE>'s <CODE>catgets</CODE>-based API.
  61
  62 </P>
  63 <P>
  64 While Jim took some distance and time and became dad for a second
  65 time, Roland wanted to get GNU <CODE>libc</CODE> internationalized, and
  66 got Ulrich Drepper involved in that project.  Instead of starting
  67 from <CODE>glocale</CODE>, Ulrich rewrote something from scratch, but
  68 more conformant to the set of guidelines who emerged out of the
  69 <CODE>glocale</CODE> effort.  Then, Ulrich got people from the previous
  70 forum to involve themselves into this new project, and the switch
  71 from <CODE>glocale</CODE> to what was first named <CODE>msgutils</CODE>, renamed
  72 <CODE>nlsutils</CODE>, and later <CODE>gettext</CODE>, became officially accepted
  73 by Richard in May 1995 or so.
  74
  75 </P>
  76 <P>
  77 Let's summarize by saying that Ulrich Drepper wrote GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
  78 in April 1995.  The first official release of the package, including
  79 PO mode, occurred in July 1995, and was numbered 0.7.  Other people
  80 contributed to the effort by providing a discussion forum around
  81 Ulrich, writing little pieces of code, or testing.  These are quoted
  82 in the <CODE>THANKS</CODE> file which comes with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
  83 distribution.
  84
  85 </P>
  86 <P>
  87 While this was being done, Fran&ccedil;ois adapted half a dozen of
  88 GNU packages to <CODE>glocale</CODE> first, then later to <CODE>gettext</CODE>,
  89 putting them in pretest, so providing along the way an effective
  90 user environment for fine tuning the evolving tools.  He also took
  91 the responsibility of organizing and coordinating the Translation
  92 Project.  After nearly a year of informal exchanges between people from
  93 many countries, translator teams started to exist in May 1995, through
  94 the creation and support by Patrick D'Cruze of twenty unmoderated
  95 mailing lists for that many native languages, and two moderated
  96 lists: one for reaching all teams at once, the other for reaching
  97 all willing maintainers of internationalized free software packages.
  98
  99 </P>
 100 <P>
 101 Fran&ccedil;ois also wrote PO mode in June 1995 with the collaboration
 102 of Greg McGary, as a kind of contribution to Ulrich's package.
 103 He also gave a hand with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> Texinfo manual.
 104
 105 </P>
 106 <P>
 107 In 1997, Ulrich Drepper released the GNU libc 2.0, which included the
 108 <CODE>gettext</CODE>, <CODE>textdomain</CODE> and <CODE>bindtextdomain</CODE> functions.
 109
 110 </P>
 111 <P>
 112 In 2000, Ulrich Drepper added plural form handling (the <CODE>ngettext</CODE>
 113 function) to GNU libc.  Later, in 2001, he released GNU libc 2.2.x,
 114 which is the first free C library with full internationalization support.
 115
 116 </P>
 117 <P>
 118 Ulrich being quite busy in his role of General Maintainer of GNU libc,
 119 he handed over the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> maintenance to Bruno Haible in
 120 2000.  Bruno added the plural form handling to the tools as well, added
 121 support for UTF-8 and CJK locales, and wrote a few new tools for
 122 manipulating PO files.
 123
 124 </P>
 125
 126
 127 <H2><A NAME="SEC289" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC289">14.2  Related Readings</A></H2>
 128 <P>
 129 <A NAME="IDX1161"></A>
 130 <A NAME="IDX1162"></A>
 131
 132 </P>
 133 <P>
 134 Eugene H. Dorr (<TT>`dorre@well.com&acute;</TT>) maintains an interesting
 135 bibliography on internationalization matters, called
 136 <CITE>Internationalization Reference List</CITE>, which is available as:
 137
 138 <PRE>
 139 ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/doc/i18n-books.txt
 140 </PRE>
 141
 142 <P>
 143 Michael Gschwind (<TT>`mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at&acute;</TT>) maintains a
 144 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, entitled <CITE>Programming for
 145 Internationalisation</CITE>.  This FAQ discusses writing programs which
 146 can handle different language conventions, character sets, etc.;
 147 and is applicable to all character set encodings, with particular
 148 emphasis on ISO 8859-1.  It is regularly published in Usenet
 149 groups <TT>`comp.unix.questions&acute;</TT>, <TT>`comp.std.internat&acute;</TT>,
 150 <TT>`comp.software.international&acute;</TT>, <TT>`comp.lang.c&acute;</TT>,
 151 <TT>`comp.windows.x&acute;</TT>, <TT>`comp.std.c&acute;</TT>, <TT>`comp.answers&acute;</TT>
 152 and <TT>`news.answers&acute;</TT>.  The home location of this document is:
 153
 154 <PRE>
 155 ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit/ISO-programming
 156 </PRE>
 157
 158 <P>
 159 Patrick D'Cruze (<TT>`pdcruze@li.org&acute;</TT>) wrote a tutorial about NLS
 160 matters, and Jochen Hein (<TT>`Hein@student.tu-clausthal.de&acute;</TT>) took
 161 over the responsibility of maintaining it.  It may be found as:
 162
 163 <PRE>
 164 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/nls/catalogs/Incoming/...
 165      ...locale-tutorial-0.8.txt.gz
 166 </PRE>
 167
 168 <P>
 169 This site is mirrored in:
 170
 171 <PRE>
 172 ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/
 173 </PRE>
 174
 175 <P>
 176 A French version of the same tutorial should be findable at:
 177
 178 <PRE>
 179 ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/french/docs/
 180 </PRE>
 181
 182 <P>
 183 together with French translations of many Linux-related documents.
 184
 185 </P>
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