1 Notes on the GNU Translation Project
2 ************************************
4 GNU is going international! The GNU Translation Project is a way to
5 get maintainers, translators, and users all together, so that GNU will
6 gradually become able to speak many languages. A few packages already
7 provide translations for their messages.
9 If you found this `ABOUT-NLS' file inside a GNU distribution, you
10 may assume that the distributed package does use GNU `gettext'
11 internally, itself available at your nearest GNU archive site. But you
12 do *not* need to install GNU `gettext' prior to configuring, installing
13 or using 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.
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
35 the operating system where this package is being installed. So far, no
36 prior implementation provides as many useful features (such as locale
37 alias or message inheritance). It is also not possible to offer this
38 additional functionality on top of a `catgets' implementation. Future
39 versions of GNU `gettext' will very likely convey even more
40 functionality. So it might be a good idea to change to GNU `gettext'
46 Some GNU packages are "localizable" when properly installed; the
47 programs they contain can be made to speak your own native language.
48 Most such packages use GNU `gettext'. Other packages have their own
49 ways to internationalization, predating GNU `gettext'.
51 By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of
52 messages. It will automatically detect whether the system provides
53 usable `catgets' (if using this is selected by the installer) or
54 `gettext' functions. If neither is available, the GNU `gettext' own
55 library will be used. This library is wholly contained within this
56 package, usually in the `intl/' subdirectory, so prior installation of
57 the GNU `gettext' package is *not* required. Installers may use
58 special options at configuration time for changing the default
59 behaviour. The commands:
61 ./configure --with-included-gettext
62 ./configure --with-catgets
63 ./configure --disable-nls
65 will respectively bypass any pre-existing `catgets' or `gettext' to use
66 the internationalizing routines provided within this package, enable
67 the use of the `catgets' functions (if found on the locale system), or
68 else, *totally* disable translation of messages.
70 When you already have GNU `gettext' installed on your system and run
71 configure without an option for your new package, `configure' will
72 probably detect the previously built and installed `libintl.a' file and
73 will decide to use this. This might be not what is desirable. You
74 should use the more recent version of the GNU `gettext' library. I.e.
75 if the file `intl/VERSION' shows that the library which comes with this
76 package is more recent, you should use
78 ./configure --with-included-gettext
80 to prevent auto-detection.
82 By default the configuration process will not test for the `catgets'
83 function and therefore they will not be used. The reasons are already
84 given above: the emulation on top of `catgets' cannot provide all the
85 extensions provided by the GNU `gettext' library. If you nevertheless
86 want to use the `catgets' functions use
88 ./configure --with-catgets
90 to enable the test for `catgets' (this causes no harm if `catgets' is
91 not available on your system). If you really select this option we
92 would like to hear about the reasons because we cannot think of any
95 Internationalized packages have usually many `po/LL.po' files, where
96 LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language. Unless
97 translations have been forbidden at `configure' time by using the
98 `--disable-nls' switch, all available translations are installed
99 together with the package. However, the environment variable `LINGUAS'
100 may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set.
101 `LINGUAS' should then contain a space separated list of two-letter
102 codes, stating which languages are allowed.
107 As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, you
108 only have to set the `LANG' environment variable to the appropriate
109 ISO 639 `LL' two-letter code prior to using the programs in the
110 package. For example, let's suppose that you speak German. At the
111 shell prompt, merely execute `setenv LANG de' (in `csh'),
112 `export LANG; LANG=de' (in `sh') or `export LANG=de' (in `bash'). This
113 can be done from your `.login' or `.profile' file, once and for all.
115 An operating system might already offer message localization for
116 many of its programs, while other programs (whether GNU or not) have
117 been installed locally with the full capabilities of GNU `gettext'.
118 Just using `gettext' extended syntax for `LANG' would break proper
119 localization of already available operating system programs. In this
120 case, users should set both `LANGUAGE' and `LANG' variables in their
121 environment, as programs using GNU `gettext' give preference to
122 `LANGUAGE'. For example, some Swedish users would rather read
123 translations in German than English for when Swedish is not available.
124 This is easily accomplished by setting `LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while
125 leaving `LANG' to `sv'.
130 For the GNU Translation Project to be a success, we need interested
131 people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also
132 able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language.
133 Each translation team has its own mailing list, courtesy of Linux
134 International. You may reach your translation team at the address
135 `LL@li.org', replacing LL by the two-letter ISO 639 code for your
136 language. Language codes are *not* the same as the country codes given
137 in ISO 3166. The following translation teams exist, as of February
140 Arabic `ar', Chinese `zh', Czech `cs', Danish `da', Dutch `nl',
141 English `en', Esperanto `eo', Finnish `fi', French `fr', German
142 `de', Greek `el', Hebrew `he', Hungarian `hu', Irish `ga', Italian
143 `it', Indonesian `id', Japanese `ja', Korean `ko', Latin `la',
144 Norwegian `no', Persian `fa', Polish `pl', Portuguese `pt',
145 Russian `ru', Slovenian `sl', Spanish `es', Swedish `sv', Telugu
146 `te', Turkish `tr' and Ukrainian `uk'.
148 For example, you may reach the Chinese translation team by writing to
151 If you'd like to volunteer to *work* at translating messages, you
152 should become a member of the translating team for your own language.
153 The subscribing address is *not* the same as the list itself, it has
154 `-request' appended. For example, speakers of Swedish can send a
155 message to `sv-request@li.org', having this message body:
159 Keep in mind that team members are expected to participate
160 *actively* in translations, or at solving translational difficulties,
161 rather than merely lurking around. If your team does not exist yet and
162 you want to start one, or if you are unsure about what to do or how to
163 get started, please write to `gnu-translation@gnu.org' to reach
164 the GNU coordinator for all translator teams.
166 The English team is special. It works at improving and uniformizing
167 the terminology used in GNU. Proven linguistic skill are praised more
168 than programming skill, here. For the time being, please avoid
169 subscribing to the English team unless explicitly invited to do so.
174 Languages are not equally supported in all GNU packages. The
175 following matrix shows the current state of GNU internationalization,
176 as of February 1997. The matrix shows, in regard of each package, for
177 which languages PO files have been submitted to translation
180 Ready PO files cs de en es fi fr ja ko nl no pl pt sl sv
181 .-------------------------------------------.
185 cpio | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
186 diffutils | [] [] [] [] | 4
187 enscript | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
188 fileutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
189 findutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 7
192 gettext | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 11
193 grep | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
194 hello | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 10
197 libc | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 7
198 m4 | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
199 make | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
201 ptx | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
202 recode | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
203 sh-utils | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
204 sharutils | [] [] [] [] [] | 5
205 tar | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 9
207 textutils | [] [] [] [] [] [] | 6
208 wdiff | [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] | 8
209 `-------------------------------------------'
210 14 languages cs de en es fi fr ja ko nl no pl pt sl sv
211 27 packages 1 22 1 14 1 25 1 10 20 7 14 7 7 15 145
213 Some counters in the preceding matrix are higher than the number of
214 visible blocks let us expect. This is because a few extra PO files are
215 used for implementing regional variants of languages, or language
218 For a PO file in the matrix above to be effective, the package to
219 which it applies should also have been internationalized and
220 distributed as such by its maintainer. There might be an observable
221 lag between the mere existence a PO file and its wide availability in a
224 If February 1997 seems to be old, you may fetch a more recent copy
225 of this `ABOUT-NLS' file on most GNU archive sites.
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