Subject: Re: Major problem with localization design
From: Rhoslyn Prys (rhoslyn.prys@ntlworld.com)
Date: Wed Feb 06 2002 - 16:07:19 CST
A programme is available that will with some modification handle string
files. Translator also has a dictionary feature tor translation memory. The
program is availabel from http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/translator.html and
runs in W*****s!
Rhoslyn Prys cy-GB
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jakub Travnik" <J.Travnik@sh.cvut.cz>
To: <abiword-dev@abisource.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 9:22 PM
Subject: Major problem with localization design
> Hello,
>
> I got recently involved in localization of abiword to cs-CZ
> (Czech) locale. (btw: It was duplicated effort, Radek Vybiral
> has done this too)
>
> The problem:
>
> I have done full translation of strings in .po file and still
> there were some untranslated texts in result. So I have
> investigated it.
>
> First, I have found that ui-backport.pl does not convert last
> line in .po file (patch should be already in cvs). But this
> did not explained why much more strings are missing
> (in .strings file).
>
> Example of missing entry was:
> DLG_UP_All
>
> I have thought that problem is with xgettext (called from
> update.pl) because when two files it is called with (they
> are created in abi/po/tmp ) are in reverse order, the
> DLG_UP_All entry is in output.
>
> Now I understand the problem, it is not with xgettext,
> it is abiword problem.
>
> Explanation:
>
> The .strings file contains entries like this:
> IDENTIFIER="localized text"
>
> The .po file contains entries like this:
> #. IDENTIFIER
> # there is a comment after string '# '
> # there is a identifier after '#.' by convetion
> msgid "original text"
> msgstr "localized text"
>
> The problem occur when there are two entries with same
> value in original header files. (they would look like
> this in .strings file):
> IDENT1='bla'
> IDENT2='bla'
>
> xgettext will extract only the first, the second is ignored
> so .po file will contain only IDENT1 and not IDENT2
>
>
> IMHO there cannot be two same msgid in .po file. What will
> happen when they are there? It is the question how other
> programs for .po files will beave (other tools from gettext
> package, kbabel, emacs po mode).
>
> Examples of such entries:
> src/wp/ap/xp/ap_String_Id.h:
> dcl(DLG_Styles_LBL_All, "All")
> src/af/xap/xp/xap_String_Id.h:
> dcl(DLG_UP_All, "All")
>
> Note that it may be good to have ability to translate same
> original string to different localised strings.
> i.e. "All" can be translated to Czech language as
> "Vsechny", "Vsechna", "Vsichni" (without diacritics)
> depending on context. This can be distinguished only
> by .strings format.
>
> But it is inconvenient to translate in .strings because
> there are no tools available (except for plain text editors,
> that works always :-)
>
> Another problem found is how to get strings from header files.
> i.e.:
> file abi/src/af/xap/xp/xap_String_Id.h contains:
> /* Default name for new, untitled document */
> dcl(MSG_ShowUnixFontWarning, "AbiWord was not able to add its fonts to the
X "
> "font path. Please see \"Unix Font Path Problem\" in the FAQ section of "
> "Abiword help file.")
>
> but current conversion to .po leaves only parts of it
> (file abi/po/abiword.pot):
> #. MSG_ShowUnixFontWarning
> #: po/tmp/xap_String_Id.h.h:27
> msgid "AbiWord was not able to add its fonts to the X "
> msgstr ""
>
> This can be workarounded by program in C that would include
> the files but with dcl macro redefined. Such compiled program
> could produce correct results.
> example of such macro:
> #define dcl(x,y) printf(#x "=%s\n", escapestring(y));
>
>
> Abiword developer community first need to agree on solution
> (that would be acceptable for all affected language
> translations) before further translation can occur.
>
>
> Jakub Travnik
> jabber://jtra@jabber.com
> sometimes irc: irc.gnome.org, #abiword, nick: jtra
>
>
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