ABOUT-NLS
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- Notes on the Free Translation Project
- *************************************
- Free software is going international! The Free Translation Project
- is a way to get maintainers of free software, translators, and users all
- together, so that will gradually become able to speak many languages.
- A few packages already provide translations for their messages.
- If you found this `ABOUT-NLS' file inside a distribution, you may
- assume that the distributed package does use GNU `gettext' internally,
- itself available at your nearest GNU archive site. But you do *not*
- need to install GNU `gettext' prior to configuring, installing or using
- this package with messages translated.
- Installers will find here some useful hints. These notes also
- explain how users should proceed for getting the programs to use the
- available translations. They tell how people wanting to contribute and
- work at translations should contact the appropriate team.
- When reporting bugs in the `intl/' directory or bugs which may be
- related to internationalization, you should tell about the version of
- `gettext' which is used. The information can be found in the
- `intl/VERSION' file, in internationalized packages.
- One advise in advance
- =====================
- If you want to exploit the full power of internationalization, you
- should configure it using
- ./configure --with-included-gettext
- to force usage of internationalizing routines provided within this
- package, despite the existence of internationalizing capabilities in the
- operating system where this package is being installed. So far, only
- the `gettext' implementation in the GNU C library version 2 provides as
- many features (such as locale alias or message inheritance) as the
- implementation here. It is also not possible to offer this additional
- functionality on top of a `catgets' implementation. Future versions of
- GNU `gettext' will very likely convey even more functionality. So it
- might be a good idea to change to GNU `gettext' as soon as possible.
- So you need not provide this option if you are using GNU libc 2 or
- you have installed a recent copy of the GNU gettext package with the
- included `libintl'.
- INSTALL Matters
- ===============
- Some packages are "localizable" when properly installed; the
- programs they contain can be made to speak your own native language.
- Most such packages use GNU `gettext'. Other packages have their own
- ways to internationalization, predating GNU `gettext'.
- By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of
- messages. It will automatically detect whether the system provides
- usable `catgets' (if using this is selected by the installer) or
- `gettext' functions. If neither is available, the GNU `gettext' own
- library will be used. This library is wholly contained within this
- package, usually in the `intl/' subdirectory, so prior installation of
- the GNU `gettext' package is *not* required. Installers may use
- special options at configuration time for changing the default
- behaviour. The commands:
- ./configure --with-included-gettext
- ./configure --with-catgets
- ./configure --disable-nls
- will respectively bypass any pre-existing `catgets' or `gettext' to use
- the internationalizing routines provided within this package, enable
- the use of the `catgets' functions (if found on the locale system), or
- else, *totally* disable translation of messages.
- When you already have GNU `gettext' installed on your system and run
- configure without an option for your new package, `configure' will
- probably detect the previously built and installed `libintl.a' file and
- will decide to use this. This might be not what is desirable. You
- should use the more recent version of the GNU `gettext' library. I.e.
- if the file `intl/VERSION' shows that the library which comes with this
- package is more recent, you should use
- ./configure --with-included-gettext
- to prevent auto-detection.
- By default the configuration process will not test for the `catgets'
- function and therefore they will not be used. The reasons are already
- given above: the emulation on top of `catgets' cannot provide all the
- extensions provided by the GNU `gettext' library. If you nevertheless
- want to use the `catgets' functions use
- ./configure --with-catgets
- to enable the test for `catgets' (this causes no harm if `catgets' is
- not available on your system). If you really select this option we
- would like to hear about the reasons because we cannot think of any
- good one ourself.
- Internationalized packages have usually many `po/LL.po' files, where
- LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language. Unless
- translations have been forbidden at `configure' time by using the
- `--disable-nls' switch, all available translations are installed
- together with the package. However, the environment variable `LINGUAS'
- may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set.
- `LINGUAS' should then contain a space separated list of two-letter
- codes, stating which languages are allowed.
- Using This Package
- ==================
- As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, you
- only have to set the `LANG' environment variable to the appropriate
- ISO 639 `LL' two-letter code prior to using the programs in the
- package. For example, let's suppose that you speak German. At the
- shell prompt, merely execute `setenv LANG de' (in `csh'),
- `export LANG; LANG=de' (in `sh') or `export LANG=de' (in `bash'). This
- can be done from your `.login' or `.profile' file, once and for all.
- An operating system might already offer message localization for
- many of its programs, while other programs have been installed locally
- with the full capabilities of GNU `gettext'. Just using `gettext'
- extended syntax for `LANG' would break proper localization of already
- available operating system programs. In this case, users should set
- both `LANGUAGE' and `LANG' variables in their environment, as programs
- using GNU `gettext' give preference to `LANGUAGE'. For example, some
- Swedish users would rather read translations in German than English for
- when Swedish is not available. This is easily accomplished by setting
- `LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while leaving `LANG' to `sv'.
- Translating Teams
- =================
- For the Free Translation Project to be a success, we need interested
- people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also
- able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language.
- Each translation team has its own mailing list, courtesy of Linux
- International. You may reach your translation team at the address
- `LL@li.org', replacing LL by the two-letter ISO 639 code for your
- language. Language codes are *not* the same as the country codes given
- in ISO 3166. The following translation teams exist, as of December
- 1997:
- Chinese `zh', Czech `cs', Danish `da', Dutch `nl', English `en',
- Esperanto `eo', Finnish `fi', French `fr', German `de', Hungarian
- `hu', Irish `ga', Italian `it', Indonesian `id', Japanese `ja',
- Korean `ko', Latin `la', Norwegian `no', Persian `fa', Polish
- `pl', Portuguese `pt', Russian `ru', Slovenian `sl', Spanish `es',
- Swedish `sv', and Turkish `tr'.
- For example, you may reach the Chinese translation team by writing to
- `zh@li.org'.
- If you'd like to volunteer to *work* at translating messages, you
- should become a member of the translating team for your own language.
- The subscribing address is *not* the same as the list itself, it has
- `-request' appended. For example, speakers of Swedish can send a
- message to `sv-request@li.org', having this message body:
- subscribe
- Keep in mind that team members are expected to participate
- *actively* in translations, or at solving translational difficulties,
- rather than merely lurking around. If your team does not exist yet and
- you want to start one, or if you are unsure about what to do or how to
- get started, please write to `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to reach the
- coordinator for all translator teams.
- The English team is special. It works at improving and uniformizing
- the terminology in use. Proven linguistic skill are praised more than
- programming skill, here.
- Available Packages
- ==================
- Languages are not equally supported in all packages. The following
- matrix shows the current state of internationalization, as of December
- 1997. The matrix shows, in regard of each package, for which languages
- PO files have been submitted to translation coordination.
- Ready PO files cs da de en es fi fr it ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv
- .----------------------------------------------------.
- bash | [] [] [] | 3
- bison | [] [] [] | 3
- clisp | [] [] [] [] | 4
- cpio | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
- diffutils | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
- enscript | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
- fileutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 10
- findutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9
- flex | [] [] [] [] | 4
- gcal | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
- gettext | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 12
- grep | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 10
- hello | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11
- id-utils | [] [] [] | 3
- indent | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
- libc | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 7
- m4 | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
- make | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
- music | [] [] | 2
- ptx | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
- recode | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9
- sh-utils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
- sharutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
- tar | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11
- texinfo | [] [] [] | 3
- textutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9
- wdiff | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
- `----------------------------------------------------'
- 17 languages cs da de en es fi fr it ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv
- 27 packages 6 4 25 1 18 1 26 2 1 12 20 9 19 7 4 7 17 179
- Some counters in the preceding matrix are higher than the number of
- visible blocks let us expect. This is because a few extra PO files are
- used for implementing regional variants of languages, or language
- dialects.
- For a PO file in the matrix above to be effective, the package to
- which it applies should also have been internationalized and
- distributed as such by its maintainer. There might be an observable
- lag between the mere existence a PO file and its wide availability in a
- distribution.
- If December 1997 seems to be old, you may fetch a more recent copy
- of this `ABOUT-NLS' file on most GNU archive sites.