"SfR Fresh" - the SfR Freeware/Shareware Archive

Member "gxine-0.5.903/ABOUT-NLS" of archive gxine-0.5.903.tar.gz:

    1 1 Notes on the Free Translation Project
    2 ***************************************
    3 
    4 Free software is going international!  The Free Translation Project is
    5 a way to get maintainers of free software, translators, and users all
    6 together, so that free software will gradually become able to speak many
    7 languages.  A few packages already provide translations for their
    8 messages.
    9 
   10    If you found this `ABOUT-NLS' file inside a distribution, you may
   11 assume that the distributed package does use GNU `gettext' internally,
   12 itself available at your nearest GNU archive site.
   13 
   14    Installers will find here some useful hints.  These notes also
   15 explain how users should proceed for getting the programs to use the
   16 available translations.  They tell how people wanting to contribute and
   17 work on translations can contact the appropriate team.
   18 
   19    When reporting bugs in the `intl/' directory or bugs which may be
   20 related to internationalization, you should tell about the version of
   21 `gettext' which is used.  The information can be found in the
   22 `intl/VERSION' file, in internationalized packages.
   23 
   24 1.1 INSTALL Matters
   25 ===================
   26 
   27 Some packages are "localizable" when properly installed; the programs
   28 they contain can be made to speak your own native language.  Most such
   29 packages use GNU `gettext'.  Other packages have their own ways to
   30 internationalization, predating GNU `gettext'.
   31 
   32    By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of
   33 messages.  It will automatically detect whether the system already
   34 provides the GNU `gettext' functions.  If not, translation will be
   35 disabled.  Installers may use special options at configuration time for
   36 changing the default behaviour.  The command:
   37 
   38      ./configure --disable-nls
   39 
   40 will _totally_ disable translation of messages.
   41 
   42    The configuration process will not test for the `catgets' function
   43 and therefore it will not be used.  The reason is that even an
   44 emulation of `gettext' on top of `catgets' could not provide all the
   45 extensions of the GNU `gettext' library.
   46 
   47    Internationalized packages usually have many `po/LL.po' files, where
   48 LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language.  Unless
   49 translations have been forbidden at `configure' time by using the
   50 `--disable-nls' switch, all available translations are installed
   51 together with the package.  However, the environment variable `LINGUAS'
   52 may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set.
   53 `LINGUAS' should then contain a space separated list of two-letter
   54 codes, stating which languages are allowed.
   55 
   56 1.2 Using This Package
   57 ======================
   58 
   59 As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, you
   60 only have to set the `LANG' environment variable to the appropriate
   61 `LL_CC' combination.  Here `LL' is an ISO 639 two-letter language code,
   62 and `CC' is an ISO 3166 two-letter country code.  For example, let's
   63 suppose that you speak German and live in Germany.  At the shell
   64 prompt, merely execute `setenv LANG de_DE' (in `csh'),
   65 `export LANG; LANG=de_DE' (in `sh') or `export LANG=de_DE' (in `bash').
   66 This can be done from your `.login' or `.profile' file, once and for
   67 all.
   68 
   69    You might think that the country code specification is redundant.
   70 But in fact, some languages have dialects in different countries.  For
   71 example, `de_AT' is used for Austria, and `pt_BR' for Brazil.  The
   72 country code serves to distinguish the dialects.
   73 
   74    The locale naming convention of `LL_CC', with `LL' denoting the
   75 language and `CC' denoting the country, is the one use on systems based
   76 on GNU libc.  On other systems, some variations of this scheme are
   77 used, such as `LL' or `LL_CC.ENCODING'.  You can get the list of
   78 locales supported by your system for your country by running the command
   79 `locale -a | grep '^LL''.
   80 
   81    Not all programs have translations for all languages.  By default, an
   82 English message is shown in place of a nonexistent translation.  If you
   83 understand other languages, you can set up a priority list of languages.
   84 This is done through a different environment variable, called
   85 `LANGUAGE'.  GNU `gettext' gives preference to `LANGUAGE' over `LANG'
   86 for the purpose of message handling, but you still need to have `LANG'
   87 set to the primary language; this is required by other parts of the
   88 system libraries.  For example, some Swedish users who would rather
   89 read translations in German than English for when Swedish is not
   90 available, set `LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while leaving `LANG' to `sv_SE'.
   91 
   92    Special advice for Norwegian users: The language code for Norwegian
   93 bokma*l changed from `no' to `nb' recently (in 2003).  During the
   94 transition period, while some message catalogs for this language are
   95 installed under `nb' and some older ones under `no', it's recommended
   96 for Norwegian users to set `LANGUAGE' to `nb:no' so that both newer and
   97 older translations are used.
   98 
   99    In the `LANGUAGE' environment variable, but not in the `LANG'
  100 environment variable, `LL_CC' combinations can be abbreviated as `LL'
  101 to denote the language's main dialect.  For example, `de' is equivalent
  102 to `de_DE' (German as spoken in Germany), and `pt' to `pt_PT'
  103 (Portuguese as spoken in Portugal) in this context.
  104 
  105 1.3 Translating Teams
  106 =====================
  107 
  108 For the Free Translation Project to be a success, we need interested
  109 people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also
  110 able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language.
  111 Each translation team has its own mailing list.  The up-to-date list of
  112 teams can be found at the Free Translation Project's homepage,
  113 `http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/', in the "National teams"
  114 area.
  115 
  116    If you'd like to volunteer to _work_ at translating messages, you
  117 should become a member of the translating team for your own language.
  118 The subscribing address is _not_ the same as the list itself, it has
  119 `-request' appended.  For example, speakers of Swedish can send a
  120 message to `sv-request@li.org', having this message body:
  121 
  122      subscribe
  123 
  124    Keep in mind that team members are expected to participate
  125 _actively_ in translations, or at solving translational difficulties,
  126 rather than merely lurking around.  If your team does not exist yet and
  127 you want to start one, or if you are unsure about what to do or how to
  128 get started, please write to `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to reach the
  129 coordinator for all translator teams.
  130 
  131    The English team is special.  It works at improving and uniformizing
  132 the terminology in use.  Proven linguistic skill are praised more than
  133 programming skill, here.
  134 
  135 1.4 Using `gettext' in new packages
  136 ===================================
  137 
  138 If you are writing a freely available program and want to
  139 internationalize it you are welcome to use GNU `gettext' in your
  140 package.  Of course you have to respect the GNU Library General Public
  141 License which covers the use of the GNU `gettext' library.  This means
  142 in particular that even non-free programs can use `libintl' as a shared
  143 library, whereas only free software can use `libintl' as a static
  144 library or use modified versions of `libintl'.
  145 
  146    Once the sources are changed appropriately and the setup can handle
  147 the use of `gettext' the only thing missing are the translations.  The
  148 Free Translation Project is also available for packages which are not
  149 developed inside the GNU project.  Therefore the information given above
  150 applies also for every other Free Software Project.  Contact
  151 `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to make the `.pot' files available to
  152 the translation teams.
  153