lang-howto

Linux下的MSN聊天程序源码

diff files or incumplete translation files with a few keys.
-As stated above, keys sent in the body of the email will be
IGNORED and DISCARDED.
-If you changed the file encoding, please TELL US THE NEW encoding you used,
in order to change it in the langlist file.
-Langfiles sent to other email addresses than
[e-mail] will also be IGNORED and
DISCARDED. When in doubt, ask!

If not possible, or you're just translation a few keys, you can just
send (although it is not the ideal) a text file attached to the
mail, in the form:

keyname1 translation1
keyname2 translation2

that is, the keyname, followed by ONE BLANK SPACE (no tabs or
similar), and followed by the translated string, no need to include
the original english string, or similar. One key per line, no extra
blank lines in the middle. Including the keys directly in the email
text is a bad idea, as mail clients usually split long lines and
change the character encodings, which leads to mistakes.

OTHER KINDS OF CONTRIBUTION WILL BE REJECTED, IN ORDER TO MAKE THE
JOB EASIER TO THE MANAGER.

I hope you understand, there's usually one person in charge of
updating the translations, and there are more than 50 languages, so
there are many translations and submission. Don't make it more
difficult :)

When in doubt, ask! ([e-mail])

HOW TO ADD A NEW LANGUAGE
-------------------------

1. Choose a short identifier for your language (for example english
- en). It is better that you use the correct ISO code for your
language. ISO codes for languages can be found at

    http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm

Always use the 2-letter code for your language if it exists (for
instance, fr for french, pt for portuguese). If your language has
only a 3-letter code (for instance, ale for aleut, pap for
papiamento) you must use it, though. 
When in doubt, ask! ([e-mail])

For languages spoken on colonial lands, you shoud use the language
ISO code followed by an underline and the country ISO code in CAPS
(fr_CA for canadian french, pt_BR for brazilian portuguese). 

Language ISO codes:
    http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm

Country ISO codes:
    http://www.bcpl.net/~jspath/isocodes.html

Some codes have been mistakenly taken (for example, langbr once was 
taken for the brazilian portuguese, but the correct code would be
pt_BR, br alone refers to the breton language). If you find that
the ISO code for your language has been taken by mistake for
another language, scream your lungs out at the amsn-lang list and
we will fix things up ;-)
When in doubt, ask! ([e-mail])

2. Download the english language (langen) file from

    http://amsn.sourceforge.net/modules.php?name=Translation

3. Rename the file to langXX, where XX the ISO language code you've
chosen. Remember that, for some languages, the ISO code has three
(3) letters.

4. Translate the whole file, except for the first word of each line
(that is the key). Do not use <TAB> characters in the translated
files, only spaces are allowed. Tabs break aMSN. Make sure you choose
a good encoding for your language, and you use a good editor that
supports that encoding. A good choice is to use UTF-8, an unicode
encoding that supports all languages.

5. Add the language to the 'langlist' file in the amsn folder
(it's an XML file). Make sure you set the correct encoding in
'langlist', the same that you used when writing the file. Put
your langXX translation file in lang/ folder in AMSN.

6. TEST THE FILE. Use the new file in your local aMSN before
sending. Go through every menu and every dialog box. Assure that
all messages have the proper size. If you don't know how to do it,
ask for help on the amsn-lang list. Also use the scripts provided in 
the lang/ folder to check for errors in the translation. There is a 
description of these scripts in section 3 of this document.
When in doubt, ask! ([e-mail])

7. Only after testing for one or two days, send the new file,
compressed with gzip or zip, to:

    [e-mail]

Send to this email only! Submissions to other emails will be ignored
and discarded. Don't forget to tell us the language name (official "english"
name, and "local" name), and the encoding you have used. It can be
hard for the translation managerthe translation managerss to guess
the encoding!

8. When in doubt, ask! ([e-mail])

===========================
2. For Translation Managers
===========================

When a new translation arrives to you, you should only accept it if
is a diff file or a complete compressed langXX file.
Do not accept other kinds
of submissions, 'cause our users have the sad habit of sending sparse
translated keys by mail, and it's a big job :)

*TEST THE FILE WITH THE missing.py SCRIPT!*
*YOU, AS A TRANSLATION MANAGER, ***MUST*** DO THIS TO ENSURE THE FILE IS OK!*
Do this before commiting the file and only commit it if it's ok!

If the file has any problems, the best thing to do is to return it to 
the translator and ask him to correct it. If you really need to edit a 
file (for whatever reason) be sure you use a multilanguage editor and 
also use the correct encoding for each language --- or you can corrupt it.
Encodings are in langlist file (msn/langlist). This file is XML-formatted 
so it must be easy to understand.

If you reject a translation by any reason, do it politely. 
Explain the reasons of why you're rejecting it and always: 
'Thanks anyway' ;)

What should I do if...
-...I receive two lang files of the same language? Reject one, the
oldest, or the less complete.

When you get big contributions (not just 1 or 2 keys), or when you
notice a person is very active (sending frequent translation
updates for a language), you should add him to the CREDITS file. 
You should tell him/her about this, and ask him/her if he or she
wants to be removed (nobody wanted to be removed until now, but
it's polite to ask :))

When adding a new language, make sure to create an entry in the langlist file found in the top amsn directory. See the existing entries for the format.

==========================
3. For both - Useful tools
==========================

In the lang/ folder you have some useful scripts. 
Remember to replace XX in langXX for the two-letter
code of your language. Example: Valenciano = langva.

The tools are:

- missing.py: will list the missing keys in the langXX file, that
is, the keys that exist in langen (the master language), but not in
langXX. It will also warn about errors and count the number of 
untranslated keys. It's a very useful script, please use it!

Usage in Linux:
./missing.py langXX

Usage in Windows (must have the Python interpreter installed):
python missing.py langXX

- sortlang: will sort the language file. BE CAREFUL. Don't apply
sortlang if there are spplited translations, as sorting it will
sort these spplited lines, and it will be quite difficult to join
them again. So please fix any spplited lines before sorting.
Sorting is not mandatory, but it's recommended to sort before
commiting to the CVS.

Usage in Linux:
./sortlang langXX

To use it in Windows you must have Cygwin installed.
The syntax is identical. http://www.cygwin.com

- convert.tcl: converts the given source, in the source encoding, 
to the given destination file using the given encoding.

Usage in Linux:
./convert.tcl source_file 
source_encoding dest_file dest_encoding

Usage in Windows:
wish convert.tcl source_file source_encoding dest_file dest_encoding

If you are in Linux using bash, remember that the auto completion is your friend...


=========
 CREDITS 
=========
File created by Alberto Diaz

Version		Created		Author					Obs
  1.0		06.Jan.2004	Alberto Diaz				Initial file
  2.0		03.May.2004	Henrique Cesar Ulbrich (Hatredman)	Total rewrite
  2.1		Unknown		Alvaro Iradier				Inclusion of new tools (section 3)
  2.2		29.Aug.2004	Henrique Cesar Ulbrich (Hatredman)	Instructions for FAQ, README and HELP files

Please be don't mess with the versioning system. It's quite simple to determine
what version your mods should take. If you just add a few items or correct some,
ad one to the MINOR version number (example, 1.1 to 1.2). If you totally rewrite the file (or rewrite
large portions of it) add one to the MAJOR number and make the minor zero (example: 2.6 to 3.0).

These credits are not a reward or reconition for you, but a way
to hunt for a guilty person if something goes wrong he he he...
We have the CVS versioning anyway.