Transcript Internationalization and Localization

Internationalization and Localization
William Cohen
NCSU CSC 591W
April 9, 2008
This document is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States
license, available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.
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Outline
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Internationalization
Localization
Simple example
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Internationalization
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Often abbreviated as i18n
Refers to making the program code portable between languages
Allows program to work in multiple languages
Allows changes:
● Time conventions
● Number conventions
● Currency conventions
● Strings
Performed by the programmer
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Localization
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Often abbreviated as L10N
The actual process of adapting program for local conditions
Implemented by people fluent in the local language
May be implement by non-programmers
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Example Program
#include <libintl.h>
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#include <locale.h>
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#include <stdio.h>
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#include <stdlib.h>
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int main(void)
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{
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setlocale( LC_ALL, "" );
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bindtextdomain( "hello", "/usr/share/locale" );
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textdomain( "hello" );
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printf( gettext( "Hello, world!\n" ) );
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exit(0);
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}
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Generating Translation Template
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The strings in the program can be translated into many languages
Have a file generated to use as starting point for translators
Generate file with:
● xgettext -d hello -s -o hello.pot hello.c
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Creating Translations
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Create the file actual file:
● msginit -l es -o es.po -i hello.pot
Then edit the file to add the translated text
Editor will need to support the language being used
Emacs has special mode for working on translation files
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Translation File
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Have text like the following in file:
#: hello.c:10
#, c-format
msgid "Hello, world!\n"
msgstr "halo, mundo!\n"
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Compiling Translations
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Convert the human-readable file into machine-usable file:
msgfmt -c -v -o hello.mo es.po
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Installing Translations
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Translations are grouped by locale
Need to put translations into proper place
install hello.mo \
/usr/share/locale/es_ES/LC_MESSAGES
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Using the translations
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Using translations is done by setting environment variable
export LANG=es_ES
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Updating Translations
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Programs evolve over time
The text in the program may change over time
Want to minimize work for translators
● Keep the existing translations where possible
● Flag new and changed text
Save xgettext output in new file
Use merge message catalog and template command:
msgmerge -s -U es.po hello-new.pot
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Shorthand
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Reduce the amount of text in code:
#define _(x) gettext(x)
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Dealing with Static Initializers
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May have static initialization
Cannot call function for these
Use gettext_noop() as marker so string is extracted
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Further Reading
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http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3023
http://oriya.sarovar.org/docs/gettext_single.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
http://translate.fedoraproject.org/
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/translation-quick-start-guide/
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