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NLS
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1996-09-28
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Notes on the GNU Translation Project
************************************
This chapter presents some information about GNU packages providing
native language translation for their messages: configuration and
usage, contributing to translations, and obtaining GNU `gettext'.
INSTALL matters
===============
Some GNU 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'. Some other packages have their
own ways to internationalization, predating GNU `gettext'.
If you found this `NLS' file inside a GNU distribution, you may
assume that this distribution does use GNU `gettext'. By default, this
package will be installed to allow translation of messages. It will
automatically detect whether the system provides the `catgets' or
`gettext' functions. If neither is present, the GNU `gettext' library
will be used. Installers may use special options at configuration time
for changing this behaviour. The commands:
./configure --with-gnu-nls
./configure --disable-nls
will respectively bypass system `catgets' or `gettext' to use GNU
`gettext', or else, totally disable translation of messages.
The `README' file of each internationalized package should say which
languages are supported by this package, giving an ISO 639 two-letter
code for each language. If your language is supported, and translation
has not been disabled at configure time, you only have to set the
`LANG' environment variable to the two-letter language 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') or `export LANG; LANG=de' (in `sh'). This can be done from your
`.login' or `.profile' file.
Translating teams
=================
GNU is going international! The GNU Translation Project is a way to
get maintainers, translators and users all together, so GNU will
gradually become able to speak many native languages.
The GNU `gettext' tool set contains *everything* maintainers need
for internationalizing their packages for messages. It also contains
quite useful tools for helping translators at localizing messages to
their native language, once a package has already been
internationalized.
To achieve the GNU Translation Project, we need many 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.
If you'd like to volunteer to *work* at translating messages, please
send mail to your translating team.
Each team has its own mailing list, courtesy of Linux International.
You may reach your translating team at the address `XX@li.org',
replacing XX by the two-letter ISO 639 code for your language.
Language codes are *not* the same as country codes. The following
translating teams exist, as of May 1995:
Chinese (zh), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), Esperanto (eo),
Finnish (fi), French (fr), Irish (ga), German (de), Greek (el),
Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Indonesian (in), Norwegian (no),
Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Russian (ru), Spanish (es), Swedish
(sv) and Turkish (tr).
For example, you may reach the Chinese translating team by writing to
`zh@li.org'. When you become a member of the translating team for your
own language, you may subscribe to its list. For example, Swedish
people can send a message to `sv-request@li.org', having this message
body:
subscribe
Keep in mind that team members should be interested in *working* at
translations, or at solving translational difficulties, rather than
merely lurking around. If your team does not exist yet and you want to
start one, please write to `gnu-translation@prep.ai.mit.edu'; you will
then reach the GNU coordinator for all translator teams.
Available packages
==================
Languages are not equally supported in all GNU packages. The
following matrix shows the current state of GNU internationalization,
as of May 1995. Listed are: internationalized packages, and languages
for which work is in progress, or about to start. Many packages in
pretest, but not all of them, may currently be fetched from
`ftp://ftp.iro.umontreal.ca/pub/contrib/pinard/gnu/'.
See note cs de es fi fr it ja nl pt sv
\ .-------------------------------.
chess (4) | * * |
clisp (3) | * * |
diffutils (2) | . - |
fileutils | - |
flex (1) | . - |
m4 (2) | + + + - + |
gettext | + + |
ptx (2) | + + + |
recode (2) | + . + + |
sharutils (2) | + + + + + |
shellutils | - |
tar | + . + . + + |
wdiff (2) | + + + + |
`-------------------------------'
cs de es fi fr it ja nl pt sv
The interpretation legend is:
`.'
interest shown, or invitation made
`-'
being undertaken, or work in progress
`+'
submitted, and now ready for pretest
`*'
distributed through an official release
Notes:
(1)
This package has its translatable strings marked, but does not use
GNU `gettext'. A convenience patch may be available separately.
(2)
This package is planned to switch to GNU `gettext'. For the time
being, it uses temporary means for internationalization.
(3)
This package is translated to specific languages by methods
predating GNU `gettext'. Translations are kept in the sources and
memory, rather than installed in external message catalogs.
(4)
This package is translated to specific languages by methods
predating GNU `gettext'. Translations are all kept on disk files,
and sources contain numbers where one normally expects strings.
Getting GNU `gettext'
=====================
Even if specifications are still evolving, and GNU `gettext' is in
beta test, you may grab a copy by anonymous ftp, at URL
`ftp://i44ftp.info.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/gnu/gettext.tar.gz'.
For the time being, please report problems directly to Ulrich
Drepper, the author of this package, at `drepper@gnu.ai.mit.edu'.