~haaaad/geany/master

Quick Guide for new translations

--------------------------------

If you would like to translate Geany into another language, have a look at the

language statistics page at [1] first to see if your desired language already

exists. If it already exists, please read the "Notes for updating translations"

section. Otherwise, get the Git version of Geany, change to the po directory and

start the new translation with:

$ msginit -l ll_CC -o ll.po -i geany.pot

Fill in ll with the language code and CC with the country code. For example, to

translate Geany into Italian you would type:

$ msginit -l it_IT -o it.po -i geany.pot

This will create a file it.po. This file can be opened with a text editor

(e.g. Geany ;-)) or a graphical program like PoEdit [2]. There are also several

other GUI programs for working on translations.

You don't need to modify the file po/LINGUAS, it is regenerated automatically on

the next build.

When you have finished editing the file, check the file with:

$ msgfmt -c --check-accelerators=_ it.po

Please ensure you also translate the mnemonic letters (strings containing a

"_" before a letter, also called "accelerators" on some platforms/toolkits).

When the user wishes to activate a menu item using their keyboard, they will

use this letter to pick an item from the menu.

Here are a few notes on picking which letter to use:

* Always follow platform/toolkit conventions (for example "t" for "Cut") even

if they don't necessarily seem obvious.

* Try to choose the first letter of the command name, where this is the most

appropriate letter (for example "S" for "Save"), assuming it's not already

used in the same menu.

* Try not to use the same character more than once in the same menu as this

will cause the user to have to press the mnemonic's key multiple times to

select the correct menu item.

* If there is no letter in the text that can easily be entered from a keyboard

then choose another character that can be, and put it in parenthesis after the

translated text.

* Try not to change which letter is used whenever possible as it is not

user-configurable and users may have become accustomed to using the existing

mnemonic key.

You can also use intl_stats.sh, e.g. by running the following command in the top

source directory of Geany:

$ po/intl_stats.sh -a it

This will print some information about the Italian translation and checks for

menu accelerators.

When you have finished your work - which doesn't mean you finished the

translation, you will not have to work alone - send the file to the translation

mailing list [3] or directly to Frank Lanitz [4] and he will add the translation

to Geany then.

It is a good idea to let any translator and Frank know before you start or while

translating, because they can give you hints on translating and Frank can ensure

that a translation is not already in progress.

Notes for updating translations

-------------------------------

If you want to update an existing translation, please contact the translation

mailing list [3] and/or Frank Lanitz [4] directly. He is supervising all

translation issues and will contact the maintainer of the translation you want

to update to avoid any conflicts.

Some translation statistics can be found at:

http://i18n.geany.org/

I18n mailing list

-----------------

There is also a mailing list dedicated to translation issues. Please visit

http://www.geany.org/Support/MailingList#geany-i18 for more information.

[1] http://i18n.geany.org/

[2] http://www.poedit.net/

[3] http://www.geany.org/Support/MailingList#geany-i18

[4] Frank Lanitz <frank(at)frank(dot)uvena(dot)de>