xref: /third_party/backends/po/README

2003-02-06

This directory contains translations for the options of the SANE backends.
They are only used if the gettext tools are found by configure.
You will need GNU gettext: xgettext, msgfmt and msgmerge. The translations
are used at least by the frontends XSane and quiteinsane.


Users: I want to just read the description of SANE options in my language
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Use XSane (>=0.90) or your favourite frontend that supports translations, read
the documentation and set the environment variable LANG to your local setting.
Example for German: export LANG=de_DE ; xsane


Translators: I want to update existing translations
---------------------------------------------------

* cd po ; make update-po
* Edit $lang.po, add/change translations. (with $lang = your
  language, e.g. "de"). You need an editor that is capable of using the
  encoding UTF8 (unicode).
* Add your name to the header. Update the "last translator" field.
* make ; make install


Translators: I want to add a new language
-----------------------------------------

* Add the language code to po/LINGUAS
* ./config.status || ./configure
* cp po/sane-backends.pot po/$lang.po
  Replace $lang with the language code you added to po/LINGUAS.
* Go ahead with "I want to update existing translations".


Backend developers: I want to add internationalization support for my backend
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Edit the source code of the backend and add SANE_I18N to the appropriate
  strings. Mark the descriptions (desc) and titles of options with
  SANE_I18N(). Do the same for string lists used in options. The name of
  options must NOT be marked. Do NOT mark macros. Especially you don't need
  to mark standard option strings like SANE_TITLE_NUM_OPTIONS as this is
  already done in saneopts.h.
  Examples: s->opt[5].title = SANE_I18N("Enhancement");
            #define STANDARD_FORMAT SANE_I18N("a4 Paper")
* Edit po/POTFILES.in. Add all source code files that contain strings marked
  by SANE_I18N() to that file.
* If you want to also add a new language, see above.
* ./config.status || ./configure
* See "Update existing translations" or "Add a new language".


Frontend developers: I want to add internationalization support for my frontend
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The Makefile installs files called "sane-backends.mo" in the directory
  "$(prefix)/share/locale/lang/LC_MESSAGES/", e.g.:
  "/usr/local/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/sane-backends.mo". For every
  language exactly one .mo file is installed. Earlier releases of
  sane-backends installed one file per backend, e.g. sane-umax.mo. For
  backward compatibility, frontends may want to check for these files, also.
* As mentioned above, GNU gettext is used.
* With other NLS implementations, converting the mo files may work.