Creating a localization
From italc
What are localizations? Why do we need them?
Per default the user-interface of iTALC is in English which is nice but of course everyone prefers to use software in his native language. This is where localizations come in. These are special files containing translations for each string occuring in the software. When starting, iTALC checks the language-environment and tries to load the appropriate localization.
As iTALC isn’t available in all common languages, there’s still a need for people creating or just improving translations of iTALC. If you’re sure, there’s no translation for your language yet, you can startup by creating a new one. The following short article will guide you through the process of creating a translation.
How to create a localization
Important note: this section is for advanced users only. In doubt, contact the developers and you'll receive a ready-to-translate TS file. Skip this section in this case.
First download a recent source code archive (italc-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2). For making things as easy as possible, you should configure the your working copy by running configure. Now you can create new localization files for your language which contain all English strings you have to translate:
make XX.ts
XX are two characters identifying your localization, e.g. "de" for Germany, "fr" for France, "it" for Italy and so on. Now look into the directory lib/resources where you should find the according TS file.
Translating strings in the TS file
You can open this file using Qt Linguist (the one shipped with Qt 4!), which is usually part of Qt development packages or the Qt SDK (available for all platforms). The usage of Qt Linguist doesn’t require any explanations as you just have to translate the current string and hit <ctrl> + <enter> to process next one. Please do not translate sentences you’re not sure how to translate them! Often it’s more clear to people reading the English string. It isn’t bad at all if your localization is not complete yet. One day someone different will add the missing translations.
After you’re done with Qt Linguist, it’s time to integrate your translation into iTALC. Either send the maintainer a mail (see file AUTHORS) and attach the TS file.
If you're running Linux you can integrate and test your localization easily: open the File menu in Qt Linguist and select Release. Qt Linguist automatically fills in the correct output filename, so just click on OK and that’s all.
The next step is to add the released file to the according resource file. For doing this, open lib/italc_core.qrc, look for an item of another localization, duplicate it and change it accordingly.
All you have to do now is running
make distclean ./configure [flags] make install
for installing iTALC to an appropriate location. Then run it and it should speak your language ;-) If not either your locale environment variable is incorrect or you did something wrong at another place. So if you can’t figure it out, send the maintainer your TS file and very soon you’ll be able to checkout a version of iTALC containing also your localization ;-)
