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This short note is to help a translation contributor to help us localizing git-gui message files by covering the basics. Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>maint
Junio C Hamano
18 years ago
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Johannes Schindelin
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Localizing git-gui for your language |
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==================================== |
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This short note is to help you, who reads and writes English and your |
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own language, help us getting git-gui localized for more languages. It |
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does not try to be a comprehensive manual of GNU gettext, which is the |
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i18n framework we use, but tries to help you get started by covering the |
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basics and how it is used in this project. |
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1. Getting started. |
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You would first need to have a working "git". Your distribution may |
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have it as "git-core" package (do not get "GNU Interactive Tools" -- |
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that is a different "git"). You would also need GNU gettext toolchain |
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to test the resulting translation out. Although you can work on message |
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translation files with a regular text editor, it is a good idea to have |
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specialized so-called "po file editors" (e.g. emacs po-mode, KBabel, |
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poedit, GTranslator --- any of them would work well). Please install |
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them. |
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You would then need to clone the git-gui internationalization project |
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repository, so that you can work on it: |
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$ git clone mob@repo.or.cz:/srv/git/git-gui/git-gui-i18n.git/ |
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$ cd git-gui-i18n |
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$ git checkout --track -b mob origin/mob |
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$ git config remote.origin.push mob |
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The "git checkout" command creates a 'mob' branch from upstream's |
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corresponding branch and makes it your current branch. You will be |
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working on this branch. |
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The "git config" command records in your repository configuration file |
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that you would push "mob" branch to the upstream when you say "git |
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push". |
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2. Starting a new language. |
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In the git-gui-i18n directory is a po/ subdirectory. It has a |
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handful files whose names end with ".po". Is there a file that has |
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messages in your language? |
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If you do not know what your language should be named, you need to find |
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it. This currently follows ISO 639-1 two letter codes: |
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http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php |
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For example, if you are preparing a translation for Afrikaans, the |
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language code is "af". If there already is a translation for your |
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language, you do not have to perform any step in this section, but keep |
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reading, because we are covering the basics. |
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If you did not find your language, you would need to start one yourself. |
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Copy po/git-gui.pot file to po/af.po (replace "af" with the code for |
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your language). Edit the first several lines to match existing *.po |
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files to make it clear this is a translation table for git-gui project, |
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and you are the primary translator. The result of your editing would |
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look something like this: |
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# Translation of git-gui to Afrikaans |
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# Copyright (C) 2007 Shawn Pearce |
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# This file is distributed under the same license as the git-gui package. |
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# YOUR NAME <YOUR@E-MAIL.ADDRESS>, 2007. |
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# |
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#, fuzzy |
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msgid "" |
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msgstr "" |
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"Project-Id-Version: git-gui\n" |
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"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: \n" |
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"POT-Creation-Date: 2007-07-24 22:19+0300\n" |
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"PO-Revision-Date: 2007-07-25 18:00+0900\n" |
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"Last-Translator: YOUR NAME <YOUR@E-MAIL.ADDRESS>\n" |
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"Language-Team: Afrikaans\n" |
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"MIME-Version: 1.0\n" |
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"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n" |
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"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n" |
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You will find many pairs of a "msgid" line followed by a "msgstr" line. |
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These pairs define how messages in git-gui application are translated to |
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your language. Your primarily job is to fill in the empty double quote |
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pairs on msgstr lines with the translation of the strings on their |
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matching msgid lines. A few tips: |
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- Control characters, such as newlines, are written in backslash |
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sequence similar to string literals in the C programming language. |
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When the string given on a msgid line has such a backslash sequence, |
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you would typically want to have corresponding ones in the string on |
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your msgstr line. |
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- Often the messages being translated are format strings given to |
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"printf()"-like functions. Make sure "%s", "%d", and "%%" in your |
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translated messages match the original. |
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When you have to change the order of words, you can add "<number>\$" |
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between '%' and the conversion ('s', 'd', etc.) to say "<number>-th |
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parameter to the format string is used at this point". For example, |
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if the original message is like this: |
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"Length is %d, Weight is %d" |
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and if for whatever reason your translation needs to say weight first |
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and then length, you can say something like: |
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"WEIGHT IS %2\$d, LENGTH IS %1\$d" |
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The reason you need a backslash before dollar sign is because |
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this is a double quoted string in Tcl language, and without |
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it the letter introduces a variable interpolation, which you |
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do not want here. |
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- A long message can be split across multiple lines by ending the |
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string with a double quote, and starting another string on the next |
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line with another double quote. They will be concatenated in the |
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result. For example: |
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#: lib/remote_branch_delete.tcl:189 |
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#, tcl-format |
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msgid "" |
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"One or more of the merge tests failed because you have not fetched the " |
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"necessary commits. Try fetching from %s first." |
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msgstr "" |
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"HERE YOU WILL WRITE YOUR TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE LONG " |
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"MESSAGE IN YOUR LANGUAGE." |
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You can test your translation by running "make install", which would |
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create po/af.msg file and installs the result, and then running the |
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resulting git-gui under your locale: |
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$ make install |
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$ LANG=af git-gui |
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There is a trick to test your translation without first installing, if |
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you prefer. First, create this symbolic link in the source tree: |
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$ ln -s ../po lib/msgs |
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After setting up such a symbolic link, you can: |
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$ make |
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$ LANG=af ./git-gui.sh |
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When you are satisfied with your translation, commit your changes, and |
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push it back to the 'mob' branch: |
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$ edit po/af.po |
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... be sure to update Last-Translator: and |
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... PO-Revision-Date: lines. |
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$ git add po/af.po |
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$ git commit -m 'Started Afrikaans translation.' |
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$ git push |
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3. Updating your translation. |
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There may already be a translation for your language, and you may want |
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to contribute an update. This may be because you would want to improve |
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the translation of existing messages, or because the git-gui software |
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itself was updated and there are new messages that need translation. |
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In any case, make sure you are up-to-date before starting your work: |
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$ git pull |
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In the former case, you will edit po/af.po (again, replace "af" with |
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your language code), and after testing and updating the Last-Translator: |
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and PO-Revision-Date: lines, "add/commit/push" as in the previous |
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section. |
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By comparing "POT-Creation-Date:" line in po/git-gui.pot file and |
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po/af.po file, you can tell if there are new messages that need to be |
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translated. You would need the GNU gettext package to perform this |
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step. |
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$ msgmerge -U po/af.po po/git-gui.pot |
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[NEEDSWORK: who is responsible for updating po/git-gui.pot file by |
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running xgettext? IIRC, Christian recommended against running it |
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nilly-willy because it can become a source of unnecessary merge |
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conflicts. Perhaps we should mention something like " |
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The po/git-gui.pot file is updated by the internationalization |
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coordinator from time to time. You _could_ update it yourself, but |
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translators are discouraged from doing so because we would want all |
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language teams to be working off of the same version of git-gui.pot. |
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" here?] |
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This updates po/af.po (again, replace "af" with your language |
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code) so that it contains msgid lines (i.e. the original) that |
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your translation did not have before. There are a few things to |
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watch out for: |
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- The original text in English of an older message you already |
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translated might have been changed. You will notice a comment line |
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that begins with "#, fuzzy" in front of such a message. msgmerge |
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tool made its best effort to match your old translation with the |
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message from the updated software, but you may find cases that it |
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matched your old translated message to a new msgid and the pairing |
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does not make any sense -- you would need to fix them, and then |
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remove the "#, fuzzy" line from the message (your fixed translation |
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of the message will not be used before you remove the marker). |
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- New messages added to the software will have msgstr lines with empty |
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strings. You would need to translate them. |
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