1 Notes on the Free Translation Project
2 *************************************
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.
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.
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.
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.
25 Quick configuration advice
26 ==========================
28 If you want to exploit the full power of internationalization, you
29 should configure it using
31 ./configure --with-included-gettext
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, message inheritance, automatic
38 charset conversion or plural form handling) as the implementation here.
39 It is also not possible to offer this additional functionality on top
40 of a `catgets' implementation. Future versions of GNU `gettext' will
41 very likely convey even more functionality. So it might be a good idea
42 to change to GNU `gettext' as soon as possible.
44 So you need _not_ provide this option if you are using GNU libc 2 or
45 you have installed a recent copy of the GNU gettext package with the
51 Some packages are "localizable" when properly installed; the
52 programs they contain can be made to speak your own native language.
53 Most such packages use GNU `gettext'. Other packages have their own
54 ways to internationalization, predating GNU `gettext'.
56 By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of
57 messages. It will automatically detect whether the system already
58 provides the GNU `gettext' functions. If not, 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:
65 ./configure --with-included-gettext
66 ./configure --disable-nls
68 will respectively bypass any pre-existing `gettext' to use the
69 internationalizing routines provided within this package, or else,
70 _totally_ disable translation of messages.
72 When you already have GNU `gettext' installed on your system and run
73 configure without an option for your new package, `configure' will
74 probably detect the previously built and installed `libintl.a' file and
75 will decide to use this. This might be not what is desirable. You
76 should use the more recent version of the GNU `gettext' library. I.e.
77 if the file `intl/VERSION' shows that the library which comes with this
78 package is more recent, you should use
80 ./configure --with-included-gettext
82 to prevent auto-detection.
84 The configuration process will not test for the `catgets' function
85 and therefore it will not be used. The reason is that even an
86 emulation of `gettext' on top of `catgets' could not provide all the
87 extensions of the GNU `gettext' library.
89 Internationalized packages have usually many `po/LL.po' files, where
90 LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language. Unless
91 translations have been forbidden at `configure' time by using the
92 `--disable-nls' switch, all available translations are installed
93 together with the package. However, the environment variable `LINGUAS'
94 may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set.
95 `LINGUAS' should then contain a space separated list of two-letter
96 codes, stating which languages are allowed.
101 As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, you
102 only have to set the `LANG' environment variable to the appropriate
103 `LL_CC' combination. Here `LL' is an ISO 639 two-letter language code,
104 and `CC' is an ISO 3166 two-letter country code. For example, let's
105 suppose that you speak German and live in Germany. At the shell
106 prompt, merely execute `setenv LANG de_DE' (in `csh'),
107 `export LANG; LANG=de_DE' (in `sh') or `export LANG=de_DE' (in `bash').
108 This can be done from your `.login' or `.profile' file, once and for
111 You might think that the country code specification is redundant.
112 But in fact, some languages have dialects in different countries. For
113 example, `de_AT' is used for Austria, and `pt_BR' for Brazil. The
114 country code serves to distinguish the dialects.
116 Not all programs have translations for all languages. By default, an
117 English message is shown in place of a nonexistent translation. If you
118 understand other languages, you can set up a priority list of languages.
119 This is done through a different environment variable, called
120 `LANGUAGE'. GNU `gettext' gives preference to `LANGUAGE' over `LANG'
121 for the purpose of message handling, but you still need to have `LANG'
122 set to the primary language; this is required by other parts of the
123 system libraries. For example, some Swedish users who would rather
124 read translations in German than English for when Swedish is not
125 available, set `LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while leaving `LANG' to `sv_SE'.
127 In the `LANGUAGE' environment variable, but not in the `LANG'
128 environment variable, `LL_CC' combinations can be abbreviated as `LL'
129 to denote the language's main dialect. For example, `de' is equivalent
130 to `de_DE' (German as spoken in Germany), and `pt' to `pt_PT'
131 (Portuguese as spoken in Portugal) in this context.
136 For the Free Translation Project to be a success, we need interested
137 people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also
138 able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language.
139 Each translation team has its own mailing list. The up-to-date list of
140 teams can be found at the Free Translation Project's homepage,
141 `http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/', in the "National teams"
144 If you'd like to volunteer to _work_ at translating messages, you
145 should become a member of the translating team for your own language.
146 The subscribing address is _not_ the same as the list itself, it has
147 `-request' appended. For example, speakers of Swedish can send a
148 message to `sv-request@li.org', having this message body:
152 Keep in mind that team members are expected to participate
153 _actively_ in translations, or at solving translational difficulties,
154 rather than merely lurking around. If your team does not exist yet and
155 you want to start one, or if you are unsure about what to do or how to
156 get started, please write to `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to reach the
157 coordinator for all translator teams.
159 The English team is special. It works at improving and uniformizing
160 the terminology in use. Proven linguistic skill are praised more than
161 programming skill, here.
166 Languages are not equally supported in all packages. The following
167 matrix shows the current state of internationalization, as of July
168 2000. The matrix shows, in regard of each package, for which languages
169 PO files have been submitted to translation coordination, with a
170 translation percentage of at least 50%.
172 Ready PO files bg cs da de el en eo es et fi fr gl hr id it
173 .----------------------------------------------.
176 bison | [] [] [] [] |
177 clisp | [] [] [] [] |
179 diffutils | [] [] [] [] [] |
182 fileutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
183 findutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] |
187 gettext | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
188 gnupg | [] [] [] [] |
189 grep | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
190 hello | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
192 indent | [] [] [] [] [] |
193 libc | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
196 m4 | [] [] [] [] [] [] |
200 ptx | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
202 recode | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
203 sed | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
204 sh-utils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
205 sharutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] |
206 tar | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
207 texinfo | [] [] [] [] |
208 textutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
210 wdiff | [] [] [] [] [] |
211 wget | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] |
212 `----------------------------------------------'
213 bg cs da de el en eo es et fi fr gl hr id it
214 1 14 15 28 11 1 4 19 12 1 30 16 0 3 12
216 ja ko lv nl no pl pt pt_BR ru sk sl sv zh
217 .-------------------------------------------.
222 cpio | [] [] [] [] [] | 8
223 diffutils | [] [] [] | 8
226 fileutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 17
227 findutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 12
231 gettext | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 18
233 grep | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 17
234 hello | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 15
235 id-utils | [] [] [] | 4
236 indent | [] [] [] [] [] | 10
237 libc | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 16
239 lynx | [] [] [] [] | 7
240 m4 | [] [] [] [] [] | 11
241 make | [] [] [] [] [] | 9
243 parted | [] [] [] [] | 6
244 ptx | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 13
246 recode | [] [] [] | 10
247 sed | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 14
248 sh-utils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 19
249 sharutils | [] [] [] [] | 10
250 tar | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 15
252 textutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 15
254 wdiff | [] [] [] [] [] | 10
255 wget | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 17
256 `-------------------------------------------'
257 28 teams ja ko lv nl no pl pt pt_BR ru sk sl sv zh
258 38 domains 20 8 0 25 6 18 1 16 27 9 10 20 3 330
260 Some counters in the preceding matrix are higher than the number of
261 visible blocks let us expect. This is because a few extra PO files are
262 used for implementing regional variants of languages, or language
265 For a PO file in the matrix above to be effective, the package to
266 which it applies should also have been internationalized and
267 distributed as such by its maintainer. There might be an observable
268 lag between the mere existence a PO file and its wide availability in a
271 If July 2000 seems to be old, you may fetch a more recent copy of
272 this `ABOUT-NLS' file on most GNU archive sites. The most up-to-date
273 matrix with full percentage details can be found at
274 `http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/matrix.html'.
276 Using `gettext' in new packages
277 ===============================
279 If you are writing a freely available program and want to
280 internationalize it you are welcome to use GNU `gettext' in your
281 package. Of course the GNU Public License applies to your sources from
282 then if you include `gettext' directly in your distribution on but
283 since you are writing free software anyway this is no restriction.
285 Once the sources are change appropriately and the setup can handle to
286 use of `gettext' the only thing missing are the translations. The Free
287 Translation Project is also available for packages which are not
288 developed inside the GNU project. Therefore the information given above
289 applies also for every other Free Software Project. Contact
290 `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' to make the `.pot' files available to
291 the translation teams.
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