Localization

Localization

Candidates:

• GUI dialogs
• CLI messages
• Text in generated output
• Installer GUIs
• License text
• Install paths
• Desktop link
• Man-page
• Wiki
• README files
• SF project README
• Help screen
• SF project pages
• Dev doc
• Source comments
• Forums

Covered whole or in part (=hardly, =partially, =well, =complete):

• da *
• de **
• en_GB ***
• en_US ****
• eo *
• es *
• nl **
• zh_CN *

Considering:

• fr
• ja
• zh_TW

GUI dialogs

The Amaze GUI: labels, menu text, window and dialog titles, tooltips, status line messages, text in icons or splash screen, choices in combo-box lists, file type descriptions.
How: Qt has a whole system of ''QTranslator'' objects, ''tr()'' localization calls, and development tools for localization (''lupdate'', ''lrelease'', ''linguist''), which we use. We determine the locale from the environment, or override it (-locale option, ''Talk'' menu), and load ".qm" files from known places. We do not package "..qm" files as resources, to avoid bloat.
Did: Almost all string are run through ''tr()''. We have partial translations in half a dozen languages.
Not: Most of the translation files (''qtamaze/amaze/trans/.ts'') are incomplete and need proofreading.

CLI messages

The error messages and replies during the pre-GUI phase of command line option processing. This happens before the locale is known or translators loaded.
How: No approach yet. Unlocalized English (or technobabble).

Text in generated output

Comments and tags.
How:
Did:
Not:

Installer GUIs

The installer GUI labels and lists. For silent (non-GUI) installs, the messages to output.
How: WiX uses separate "*.wxs" files to generate one localized installer per locale; did not get that far. NSIS has the "language string" mechanism, which we do use, and some MUI2 macros and defines.
Did: For NSIS, we use the MUI2 mechanism as recommended to store the installer language as a registry key, for retrieval by the uninstaller. The "Uninstall" shortcut to ''amaze-erase.exe'' (the uninstaller) is localized (e.g. "Entsorgen" in German).
Not: Still need to add "Documentation" URL shortcut and localize that. The initial installer language selection omits Chinese (Unicode issue?).

License text

How:
Did:
Not: Need to localize license text shown. We only have some localized versions, need to complete; see ''qtamaze/amaze/wix/eula_*.rtf''.

Install paths

How:
Did:
Not:

Desktop link

How:
Did:
Not:

Man-page

The Unix-style manual page installed for Debian, and online at http://qtamaze.sourceforge.net/amaze.1.html.
This is more complete than the (non-localized) output of the CLI option "-help".

How: Kept in UTF-8 encoded "man" format files, see ''qtamaze/amaze/man/amaze*.1''. Localized versions are e.g. ''amaze_nl.1''.
Did: We now have [de], [en_US] (without the locale suffix), [nl].
Not: Missing [da], [en_GB] (trivial...), [eo], [es], [zh_CN], [zh_TW].

Wiki

The wiki holds both project development documentation (changes fast, less interesting to users) and the online manual referred to by the ''Help > Manual'' menu item in the Amaze GUI. To see the full list, go to Online.

How: The non-manual pages are currently only in English, and may stay that way. The online manual uses the same title for each localized version of a page, prefixed with "(''xx'')_", where ''xx'' is the locale code. For example: "(nl)_Uninstall".
Did: Some manual wiki pages done in [de], [en_US] (complete; no prefix used), [eo], [nl].
Not: Remaining pages and locales for online manual references.

README files

How:
Did:
Not:

SF project README

How:
Did:
Not:

Help screen

How:
Did:
Not:

SF project pages

How:
Did:
Not:

Dev doc

How:
Did:
Not:

Source comments

How:
Did:
Not:

Forums

The project forums are mainly in English right now, but there is now restriction of any kind on using something else.
There are some threads dedicated to specific locales, but the language being discussed (the thread topic) may not be the same as the language of discourse (the thread posts' text).

How: We use the standard, built-in ''sf.net'' forum system. Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtamaze/forums/forum/1093695.
Did: Locale-specific threads: [de] http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtamaze/forums/forum/1093695/topic/4438678, [es] http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtamaze/forums/forum/1093695/topic/4374461, [zh_CN] http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtamaze/forums/forum/1093695/topic/4374439.
Not: [da], [en_GB], [eo], [nl], [zh_TW].