Theodore Ts'o | a1774c3 | 2000-02-08 22:05:28 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | E2fsprogs-specific notes |
| 2 | ************************ |
| 3 | |
| 4 | 1) NLS support is not enabled by default. In order to get NLS |
| 5 | support, use the --enable-nls option when running configure. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | 2) The intl and po directories aren't linked into the main makefile |
| 8 | subdirectories. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | 3) The documentation for gettext is abysmal. I hope everything is |
| 11 | right, but I make no guarantees; the NLS integration is still in |
| 12 | testing. (This is why it's disabled by default.) |
| 13 | |
| 14 | 4) This ABOUT-NLS file was obtained from ftp.gnu.org in February, |
| 15 | 2000. Apparently this is the most recent version as of this writing, |
| 16 | even though it was apparently last modified in August, 1998. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | |
| 19 | |
Theodore Ts'o | e435507 | 2000-02-08 21:54:15 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 20 | Notes on the Free Translation Project |
| 21 | ************************************* |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Free software is going international! The Free Translation Project |
| 24 | is a way to get maintainers of free software, translators, and users all |
| 25 | together, so that will gradually become able to speak many languages. |
| 26 | A few packages already provide translations for their messages. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | If you found this `ABOUT-NLS' file inside a distribution, you may |
| 29 | assume that the distributed package does use GNU `gettext' internally, |
| 30 | itself available at your nearest GNU archive site. But you do *not* |
| 31 | need to install GNU `gettext' prior to configuring, installing or using |
| 32 | this package with messages translated. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | Installers will find here some useful hints. These notes also |
| 35 | explain how users should proceed for getting the programs to use the |
| 36 | available translations. They tell how people wanting to contribute and |
| 37 | work at translations should contact the appropriate team. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | When reporting bugs in the `intl/' directory or bugs which may be |
| 40 | related to internationalization, you should tell about the version of |
| 41 | `gettext' which is used. The information can be found in the |
| 42 | `intl/VERSION' file, in internationalized packages. |
| 43 | |
Theodore Ts'o | 78f9351 | 2000-04-03 13:31:09 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 44 | One piece of advise in advance |
| 45 | ============================== |
Theodore Ts'o | e435507 | 2000-02-08 21:54:15 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 46 | |
| 47 | If you want to exploit the full power of internationalization, you |
| 48 | should configure it using |
| 49 | |
| 50 | ./configure --with-included-gettext |
| 51 | |
| 52 | to force usage of internationalizing routines provided within this |
| 53 | package, despite the existence of internationalizing capabilities in the |
| 54 | operating system where this package is being installed. So far, only |
| 55 | the `gettext' implementation in the GNU C library version 2 provides as |
| 56 | many features (such as locale alias or message inheritance) as the |
| 57 | implementation here. It is also not possible to offer this additional |
| 58 | functionality on top of a `catgets' implementation. Future versions of |
| 59 | GNU `gettext' will very likely convey even more functionality. So it |
| 60 | might be a good idea to change to GNU `gettext' as soon as possible. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | So you need not provide this option if you are using GNU libc 2 or |
| 63 | you have installed a recent copy of the GNU gettext package with the |
| 64 | included `libintl'. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | INSTALL Matters |
| 67 | =============== |
| 68 | |
| 69 | Some packages are "localizable" when properly installed; the |
| 70 | programs they contain can be made to speak your own native language. |
| 71 | Most such packages use GNU `gettext'. Other packages have their own |
| 72 | ways to internationalization, predating GNU `gettext'. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of |
| 75 | messages. It will automatically detect whether the system provides |
| 76 | usable `catgets' (if using this is selected by the installer) or |
| 77 | `gettext' functions. If neither is available, the GNU `gettext' own |
| 78 | library will be used. This library is wholly contained within this |
| 79 | package, usually in the `intl/' subdirectory, so prior installation of |
| 80 | the GNU `gettext' package is *not* required. Installers may use |
| 81 | special options at configuration time for changing the default |
| 82 | behaviour. The commands: |
| 83 | |
| 84 | ./configure --with-included-gettext |
| 85 | ./configure --with-catgets |
| 86 | ./configure --disable-nls |
| 87 | |
| 88 | will respectively bypass any pre-existing `catgets' or `gettext' to use |
| 89 | the internationalizing routines provided within this package, enable |
| 90 | the use of the `catgets' functions (if found on the locale system), or |
| 91 | else, *totally* disable translation of messages. |
| 92 | |
| 93 | When you already have GNU `gettext' installed on your system and run |
| 94 | configure without an option for your new package, `configure' will |
| 95 | probably detect the previously built and installed `libintl.a' file and |
| 96 | will decide to use this. This might be not what is desirable. You |
| 97 | should use the more recent version of the GNU `gettext' library. I.e. |
| 98 | if the file `intl/VERSION' shows that the library which comes with this |
| 99 | package is more recent, you should use |
| 100 | |
| 101 | ./configure --with-included-gettext |
| 102 | |
| 103 | to prevent auto-detection. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | By default the configuration process will not test for the `catgets' |
| 106 | function and therefore they will not be used. The reasons are already |
| 107 | given above: the emulation on top of `catgets' cannot provide all the |
| 108 | extensions provided by the GNU `gettext' library. If you nevertheless |
| 109 | want to use the `catgets' functions use |
| 110 | |
| 111 | ./configure --with-catgets |
| 112 | |
| 113 | to enable the test for `catgets' (this causes no harm if `catgets' is |
| 114 | not available on your system). If you really select this option we |
| 115 | would like to hear about the reasons because we cannot think of any |
| 116 | good one ourself. |
| 117 | |
| 118 | Internationalized packages have usually many `po/LL.po' files, where |
| 119 | LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language. Unless |
| 120 | translations have been forbidden at `configure' time by using the |
| 121 | `--disable-nls' switch, all available translations are installed |
| 122 | together with the package. However, the environment variable `LINGUAS' |
| 123 | may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set. |
| 124 | `LINGUAS' should then contain a space separated list of two-letter |
| 125 | codes, stating which languages are allowed. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | Using This Package |
| 128 | ================== |
| 129 | |
| 130 | As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, you |
| 131 | only have to set the `LANG' environment variable to the appropriate |
| 132 | ISO 639 `LL' two-letter code prior to using the programs in the |
| 133 | package. For example, let's suppose that you speak German. At the |
| 134 | shell prompt, merely execute `setenv LANG de' (in `csh'), |
| 135 | `export LANG; LANG=de' (in `sh') or `export LANG=de' (in `bash'). This |
| 136 | can be done from your `.login' or `.profile' file, once and for all. |
| 137 | |
| 138 | An operating system might already offer message localization for |
| 139 | many of its programs, while other programs have been installed locally |
| 140 | with the full capabilities of GNU `gettext'. Just using `gettext' |
| 141 | extended syntax for `LANG' would break proper localization of already |
| 142 | available operating system programs. In this case, users should set |
| 143 | both `LANGUAGE' and `LANG' variables in their environment, as programs |
| 144 | using GNU `gettext' give preference to `LANGUAGE'. For example, some |
| 145 | Swedish users would rather read translations in German than English for |
| 146 | when Swedish is not available. This is easily accomplished by setting |
| 147 | `LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while leaving `LANG' to `sv'. |
| 148 | |
| 149 | Translating Teams |
| 150 | ================= |
| 151 | |
| 152 | For the Free Translation Project to be a success, we need interested |
| 153 | people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also |
| 154 | able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language. |
| 155 | Each translation team has its own mailing list, courtesy of Linux |
| 156 | International. You may reach your translation team at the address |
| 157 | `LL@li.org', replacing LL by the two-letter ISO 639 code for your |
| 158 | language. Language codes are *not* the same as the country codes given |
| 159 | in ISO 3166. The following translation teams exist, as of August 1998: |
| 160 | |
| 161 | Chinese `zh', Czech `cs', Danish `da', Dutch `nl', English `en', |
| 162 | Esperanto `eo', Finnish `fi', French `fr', German `de', Hungarian |
| 163 | `hu', Irish `ga', Italian `it', Indonesian `id', Japanese `ja', |
| 164 | Korean `ko', Latin `la', Norwegian `no', Persian `fa', Polish |
| 165 | `pl', Portuguese `pt', Russian `ru', Slovenian `sl', Spanish `es', |
| 166 | Swedish `sv', and Turkish `tr'. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | For example, you may reach the Chinese translation team by writing to |
| 169 | `zh@li.org'. |
| 170 | |
| 171 | If you'd like to volunteer to *work* at translating messages, you |
| 172 | should become a member of the translating team for your own language. |
| 173 | The subscribing address is *not* the same as the list itself, it has |
| 174 | `-request' appended. For example, speakers of Swedish can send a |
| 175 | message to `sv-request@li.org', having this message body: |
| 176 | |
| 177 | subscribe |
| 178 | |
| 179 | Keep in mind that team members are expected to participate |
| 180 | *actively* in translations, or at solving translational difficulties, |
| 181 | rather than merely lurking around. If your team does not exist yet and |
| 182 | you want to start one, or if you are unsure about what to do or how to |
| 183 | get started, please write to `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to reach the |
| 184 | coordinator for all translator teams. |
| 185 | |
| 186 | The English team is special. It works at improving and uniformizing |
| 187 | the terminology in use. Proven linguistic skill are praised more than |
| 188 | programming skill, here. |
| 189 | |
| 190 | Available Packages |
| 191 | ================== |
| 192 | |
| 193 | Languages are not equally supported in all packages. The following |
| 194 | matrix shows the current state of internationalization, as of August |
| 195 | 1998. The matrix shows, in regard of each package, for which languages |
| 196 | PO files have been submitted to translation coordination. |
| 197 | |
| 198 | Ready PO files cs da de el en es fi fr it |
| 199 | .----------------------------. |
| 200 | bash | [] [] | |
| 201 | bison | [] [] | |
| 202 | clisp | [] [] [] [] | |
| 203 | cpio | [] [] [] | |
| 204 | diffutils | [] [] [] | |
| 205 | enscript | [] [] [] [] | |
| 206 | fileutils | [] [] [] [] | |
| 207 | findutils | [] [] [] [] | |
| 208 | flex | [] [] | |
| 209 | gcal | [] [] | |
| 210 | gettext | [] [] [] [] [] | |
| 211 | grep | [] [] [] [] | |
| 212 | hello | [] [] [] [] [] | |
| 213 | id-utils | [] [] | |
| 214 | indent | [] [] | |
| 215 | libc | [] [] [] | |
| 216 | m4 | [] [] | |
| 217 | make | [] [] [] | |
| 218 | music | [] | |
| 219 | ptx | [] [] [] | |
| 220 | recode | [] [] [] [] | |
| 221 | sed | | |
| 222 | sh-utils | [] [] [] | |
| 223 | sharutils | [] [] [] [] [] | |
| 224 | tar | [] [] [] [] | |
| 225 | texinfo | [] [] [] | |
| 226 | textutils | [] [] [] [] | |
| 227 | wdiff | [] [] [] [] | |
| 228 | wget | [] [] [] [] | |
| 229 | `----------------------------' |
| 230 | cs da de el en es fi fr it |
| 231 | 7 4 26 4 1 18 1 26 4 |
| 232 | |
| 233 | ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv |
| 234 | .----------------------------. |
| 235 | bash | [] | 3 |
| 236 | bison | [] | 3 |
| 237 | clisp | | 4 |
| 238 | cpio | [] [] [] | 6 |
| 239 | diffutils | [] [] | 5 |
| 240 | enscript | [] [] | 6 |
| 241 | fileutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11 |
| 242 | findutils | [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| 243 | flex | [] [] | 4 |
| 244 | gcal | [] [] [] | 5 |
| 245 | gettext | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 13 |
| 246 | grep | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11 |
| 247 | hello | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 12 |
| 248 | id-utils | [] | 3 |
| 249 | indent | [] [] [] | 5 |
| 250 | libc | [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| 251 | m4 | [] [] [] [] | 6 |
| 252 | make | [] [] [] | 6 |
| 253 | music | [] | 2 |
| 254 | ptx | [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| 255 | recode | [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| 256 | sed | | 0 |
| 257 | sh-utils | [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| 258 | sharutils | [] [] | 7 |
| 259 | tar | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11 |
| 260 | texinfo | [] | 4 |
| 261 | textutils | [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| 262 | wdiff | [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| 263 | wget | [] | 5 |
| 264 | `----------------------------' |
| 265 | 18 teams ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv |
| 266 | 29 domains 1 12 21 11 19 7 5 7 17 191 |
| 267 | |
| 268 | Some counters in the preceding matrix are higher than the number of |
| 269 | visible blocks let us expect. This is because a few extra PO files are |
| 270 | used for implementing regional variants of languages, or language |
| 271 | dialects. |
| 272 | |
| 273 | For a PO file in the matrix above to be effective, the package to |
| 274 | which it applies should also have been internationalized and |
| 275 | distributed as such by its maintainer. There might be an observable |
| 276 | lag between the mere existence a PO file and its wide availability in a |
| 277 | distribution. |
| 278 | |
| 279 | If August 1998 seems to be old, you may fetch a more recent copy of |
| 280 | this `ABOUT-NLS' file on most GNU archive sites. |
| 281 | |
| 282 | Using `gettext' in new packages |
| 283 | =============================== |
| 284 | |
| 285 | If you are writing a freely available program and want to |
| 286 | internationalize it you are welcome to use GNU `gettext' in your |
| 287 | package. Of course the GNU Public License applies to your sources from |
| 288 | then if you include `gettext' directly in your distribution on but |
| 289 | since you are writing free software anyway this is no restriction. |
| 290 | |
| 291 | Once the sources are change appropriately and the setup can handle to |
| 292 | use of `gettext' the only thing missing are the translations. The Free |
| 293 | Translation Project is also available for packages which are not |
| 294 | developed inside the GNU project. Therefore the information given above |
| 295 | applies also for every other Free Software Project. Contact |
| 296 | `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to make the `.pot' files available to |
| 297 | the translation teams. |
| 298 | |