Localization/Translation FAQ
+ (2007-2011)
by Ran Rutenberg, Pavel Sanda, Michael Gerz
- February 2007
+
+PART I - Interface translation
+------------------------------
This file is mainly intended for those who have no or little experience using
-.po files, but want to contribute by translating the LyX interface into their
-native language.
+.po files, but want to contribute by translating the LyX interface (i.e. menu
+and dialog items, console messages) into their native language.
1) WHERE DO I START?
-The file you need to edit it an xx.po file where xx stands for your language's
-two letter code. German would be for example de.po and Polish pl.po. For a list
-of country codes look at:
+The file you need to edit is an xx.po file where xx stands for your language's
+two letter code. For a list of languages codes look at:
+
+ http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_mono/gettext.html#Language-Codes
- http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_mono/gettext.html#SEC222
+If you want to start from scratch then you should obtain a copy of the lyx.pot
+and name it after your language. German would be for example de.po and Polish
+pl.po. This file is generated in the "po" directory of the source tree during
+the compilation.
-If you want to start from scratch than you should obtain a copy of the lyx.pot
-file.
+There are basically two source trees you can start to work with - trunk
+(development version) and branch (stable version). Unless the development
+version is shortly before release it is better idea to start your translating
+work on the stable version. If you have no idea how to get those trees you
+can follow http://www.lyx.org/HowToUseGIT page.
2) HOW DO I EDIT PO FILES?
3) WHAT DO I NEED TO TRANSLATE?
-If your using a simple text editor you should translate the strings that appear
-in the msgid line and write the translation into the msgstr line. Note that a
-"#, fuzzy" line is just a hint for translation from compiler - in order to get
-the translation of the current item working you have to delete this line. It is
-recommended that you would take a look at another .po file - that way you can
-get an idea of what to do. If your using a specialized po editor then you will
-see in it the untranslated strings and a place to write your translation for
-them.
+If you are using a simple text editor you should translate the strings that
+appear in the msgid line and write the translation into the msgstr line. Note
+that a "#, fuzzy" line is just a hint for translation from compiler - in order
+to get the translation of the current item working you have to delete this
+line. It is recommended that you would take a look at another .po file - that
+way you can get an idea of what to do. If you are using a specialized po editor
+then you will see in it the untranslated strings and a place to write your
+translation for them.
-4) WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH THE '&', '|', '$, AND '%' CHARACTERS?
+4) WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH THE '&', '|', '$, '%' {} AND [[]] CHARACTERS?
'&' stands for underlined characters (shortcut) in dialog boxes.
'|' stands for underlined characters in menus.
invent your own working shortcuts for dialog and menu entries and resolve
possible conflicts of the same shortcut chars in one menu...
+Note also that there are already used global shortcuts (such as p k x c m s a)
+and you should avoid to use these characters for first-level menu shortcuts.
+
'$' and '%' are usually used as handlers for formatting or variables to be
inserted into the strings. Character sequences like %1$s or %1$d MUST also
appear in your translations! Please take them exactly as they are or you may
experience crashes when running LyX.
+[[Context]] is used to distinguish otherwise identical strings, which could
+have different translation dependent on the Context. [[Context]] appears only
+in msgid string and should not be repeated in the translated version.
+
+{} refer to counters and must not be translated. Example would be:
+msgid "Algorithm \\arabic{theorem}"
+msgstr "Algoritmus \\arabic{theorem}"
+
5) WHAT IS pocheck.pl AND HOW DO I USE IT?
This is a small script located in the "po" directory of the source that helps
you find common errors in your translation. In order to use this script you have
to have the script language Perl installed.
+Run ./pocheck.pl -h to see all possible switches.
6) HOW CAN I TEST MY TRANSLATION?
In order to test your translation you need to obtain the LyX sources (from the
SVN repository) and replace the existing .po with yours. Afterwards, you should
compile and install LyX (check the INSTALL file for your OS). If you don't
-install LyX it won't work. For running LyX with your translation, use the
+install LyX it won't work. In order to run LyX with your translation, use the
appropriate LANG variable:
On Linux: LANG=xx_CC lyx
xx stands for your language code. CC stands for your country code. So to get,
e.g., Czech, the code is "cs_CZ".
-7) REFERENCES
+The most comfortable way to see your updated translation while editing, is
+running (in linux):
+1. "make xx.gmo" in the po directory to compile updated xx.po translation
+2. "make install" in root lyx tree to copy xx.gmo into the appropriate location
+ (or do it by hand...)
+
+For advanced users - if you want to remerge your files against current source
+files run make update-po.
+
+
+7) HOW TO CONTRIBUTE MY WORK?
+
+Send your edited xx.po file to po-updates@lyx.org.
+
+Also you can check http://www.lyx.org/trac/browser/lyxgit/?rev=master to track
+changes or watch updates.
+
+
+8) SHALL ALL THE UNUSED STRINGS AT THE BOTTOM OF .PO FILE BE REMOVED,
+ OR SHALL THEY STAY?
+
+As you wish. They can be reused for generating fuzzy hints when completely
+new strings appear, no other function.
+
+
+9) REFERENCES
For some basic idea on how the translation works, you can look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettext
-For detailed reference, have a look at
+For detailed reference (including full list of country and language codes),
+have a look at
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html
+
+
+Consider subscribing to the documentation list at lyx-docs@lists.lyx.org (rather
+silent one) or developer's mailing list lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org (high volume).
+
+
+
+PART II - Translation of Math environments and Floats in the final output
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+As of 2.0 LyX allows automatic translation in tex/dvi/ps/pdf output for math
+environment strings (and some floats) which are not automatically translated via
+babel package to the localized form. For example the environment "Exercise"
+becomes "Aufgabe" in the output of the documents with language set to german.
+
+These translations are taken from the previously translated .po file before the
+final major LyX release (e.g. 2.0.0) and are fixed for all next minor releases
+(e.g. 2.0.x) in order to have fixed output of LyX documents.
+
+The current translation for your language can be found in lib/layouttranslations
+file. Easy way to check many of the translation is to simply load
+lib/examples/localization_test.lyx in LyX and read its instructions.
+
+The problematic strings can be then fixed in the .po file. For inspiration the
+typical places in .po files, where to fix the translation, can be seen on the
+following commit: http://www.lyx.org/trac/changeset/38169 .
+
+If you need to manually regenerate layouttranslations file from .po files run
+`make ../lib/layouttranslations' in po directory. Python polib library is
+needed for building the output file.
+
+Q: Running make ../lib/layouttranslations return with just saying
+ ../lib/layouttranslations is up to date.
+A: To force regerenation, use something like (XX is your language)
+ make -W XX.po ../lib/layouttranslations
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