1 Notes on the Free Translation Project 2 ************************************* 3 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. 8 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. 14 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. 19 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. 24 25 One advise in advance 26 ===================== 27 28 If you want to exploit the full power of internationalization, you 29 should configure it using 30 31 ./configure --with-included-gettext 32 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. 42 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'. 46 47 INSTALL Matters 48 =============== 49 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'. 54 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: 64 65 ./configure --with-included-gettext 66 ./configure --with-catgets 67 ./configure --disable-nls 68 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. 73 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 81 82 ./configure --with-included-gettext 83 84 to prevent auto-detection. 85 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 91 92 ./configure --with-catgets 93 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. 98 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. 107 108 Using This Package 109 ================== 110 111 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. 118 119 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'. 129 130 Translating Teams 131 ================= 132 133 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 (a] 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: 142 143 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'. 149 150 For example, you may reach the Chinese translation team by writing to 151 `zh (a] li.org'. 152 153 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 (a] li.org', having this message body: 158 159 subscribe 160 161 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 (a] iro.umontreal.ca' to reach the 166 coordinator for all translator teams. 167 168 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. 171 172 Available Packages 173 ================== 174 175 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. 179 180 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 17 179 212 213 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. 217 218 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. 223 224 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. 226 227
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