| E2fsprogs-specific notes |
| ************************ |
| |
| 1) NLS support is not enabled by default. In order to get NLS |
| support, use the --enable-nls option when running configure. |
| |
| 2) The intl and po directories aren't linked into the main makefile |
| subdirectories. |
| |
| 3) The documentation for gettext is abysmal. I hope everything is |
| right, but I make no guarantees; the NLS integration is still in |
| testing. (This is why it's disabled by default.) |
| |
| 4) This ABOUT-NLS file was obtained from ftp.gnu.org in February, |
| 2000. Apparently this is the most recent version as of this writing, |
| even though it was apparently last modified in August, 1998. |
| |
| |
| |
| 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 August 1998: |
| |
| 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 August |
| 1998. 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 el en es fi fr it |
| .----------------------------. |
| bash | [] [] | |
| bison | [] [] | |
| clisp | [] [] [] [] | |
| cpio | [] [] [] | |
| diffutils | [] [] [] | |
| enscript | [] [] [] [] | |
| fileutils | [] [] [] [] | |
| findutils | [] [] [] [] | |
| flex | [] [] | |
| gcal | [] [] | |
| gettext | [] [] [] [] [] | |
| grep | [] [] [] [] | |
| hello | [] [] [] [] [] | |
| id-utils | [] [] | |
| indent | [] [] | |
| libc | [] [] [] | |
| m4 | [] [] | |
| make | [] [] [] | |
| music | [] | |
| ptx | [] [] [] | |
| recode | [] [] [] [] | |
| sed | | |
| sh-utils | [] [] [] | |
| sharutils | [] [] [] [] [] | |
| tar | [] [] [] [] | |
| texinfo | [] [] [] | |
| textutils | [] [] [] [] | |
| wdiff | [] [] [] [] | |
| wget | [] [] [] [] | |
| `----------------------------' |
| cs da de el en es fi fr it |
| 7 4 26 4 1 18 1 26 4 |
| |
| ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv |
| .----------------------------. |
| bash | [] | 3 |
| bison | [] | 3 |
| clisp | | 4 |
| cpio | [] [] [] | 6 |
| diffutils | [] [] | 5 |
| enscript | [] [] | 6 |
| fileutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11 |
| findutils | [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| flex | [] [] | 4 |
| gcal | [] [] [] | 5 |
| gettext | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 13 |
| grep | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11 |
| hello | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 12 |
| id-utils | [] | 3 |
| indent | [] [] [] | 5 |
| libc | [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| m4 | [] [] [] [] | 6 |
| make | [] [] [] | 6 |
| music | [] | 2 |
| ptx | [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| recode | [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| sed | | 0 |
| sh-utils | [] [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| sharutils | [] [] | 7 |
| tar | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11 |
| texinfo | [] | 4 |
| textutils | [] [] [] [] [] | 9 |
| wdiff | [] [] [] [] | 8 |
| wget | [] | 5 |
| `----------------------------' |
| 18 teams ja ko nl no pl pt ru sl sv |
| 29 domains 1 12 21 11 19 7 5 7 17 191 |
| |
| 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 August 1998 seems to be old, you may fetch a more recent copy of |
| this `ABOUT-NLS' file on most GNU archive sites. |
| |
| Using `gettext' in new packages |
| =============================== |
| |
| If you are writing a freely available program and want to |
| internationalize it you are welcome to use GNU `gettext' in your |
| package. Of course the GNU Public License applies to your sources from |
| then if you include `gettext' directly in your distribution on but |
| since you are writing free software anyway this is no restriction. |
| |
| Once the sources are change appropriately and the setup can handle to |
| use of `gettext' the only thing missing are the translations. The Free |
| Translation Project is also available for packages which are not |
| developed inside the GNU project. Therefore the information given above |
| applies also for every other Free Software Project. Contact |
| `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to make the `.pot' files available to |
| the translation teams. |
| |