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diff --git a/src/po/README.txt b/src/po/README.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d283210 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/po/README.txt @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@ +TRANSLATING VIM MESSAGES + +In this directory you will find xx.po files, where "xx" is a language code. +Each file contains the translation of English Vim messages for one language. +The files are in "po" format, used by the gettext package. Please refer to +the gettext documentation for more information. + +The GNU gettext library, starting with version 0.10.37, supports converting +messages from one encoding to another. This requires that it was compiled +with HAVE_ICONV. The result is that the messages may be in any encoding +supported by iconv and will be automatically converted to the currently used +encoding. + +The GNU gettext library, starting with version 0.10.36, uses a new format for +some encodings. This follows the C99 standard for strings. It means that +when a multi-byte character includes the 0x5c byte, this is not recognized as +a backslash. Since this format is incompatible with Solaris, Vim uses the old +format. This is done by setting the OLD_PO_FILE_OUTPUT and OLD_PO_FILE_INPUT +environment variables. When you use the Makefile in this directory that will +be done for you. This does NOT work with gettext 0.10.36. Don't use it, get +0.10.37. + + +ON MS-WINDOWS + +The distributed files are generated on Unix, but this should also be possible +on MS-Windows. Download the gettext packages, for example from: + + http://sourceforge.net/projects/gettext + +You might have to do the commands manually. Example: + + cd c:\vim\vim71 + mkdir runtime\lang\ja\LC_MESSAGES + msgfmt -o runtime\lang\ja\LC_MESSAGES\vim.mo src\po\ja.po + + +WHEN THERE IS A MISTAKE + +If you find there is a mistake in one of the translations, please report this +to the maintainer of the translation. His/her E-mail address is in the +comments at the start of the file. You can also see this with the ":messages" +command in Vim when the translation is being used. + + +CREATING A NEW PO FILE + +We will use "xx.po" as an example here, replace "xx" with the name of your +language. + +- Edit Makefile to add xx to LANGUAGES and xx.mo to MOFILES. +- If you haven't done so already, run ./configure in the top vim directory + (i.e. go up two directories) and then come back here afterwards. +- Execute these commands: + % make vim.pot + % msginit -l xx + % rm vim.pot + The first command will generate a vim.pot file which is used by msginit to + generate a correct xx.po file. After that vim.pot is not needed. +- The remaining work is like updating, see the next section. + + +UPDATING A PO FILE + +If you are the maintainer of a .po file, this is how you update the file. We +will use "xx.po" as an example here, replace "xx" with the name of your +language. + +(1) Add new and changed messages from the Vim sources: + + make xx + + This will extract all the strings from Vim and merge them in with the + existing translations. Requires the GNU gettext utilities. + Your original xx.po file will be copied to xx.po.orig + + -- After you do this, you MUST do the next three steps! -- + +(2) Translate + See the gettext documentation on how to do this. You can also find + examples in the other po files. + Search the po file for items that require translation: + + /fuzzy\|^msgstr ""\(\n"\)\@! + + Remove the "#, fuzzy" line after adding the translation. + + There is one special message: + msgid "Messages maintainer: Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>" + You should include your name and E-mail address instead, for example: + msgstr "Berichten übersetzt bei: John Doe <john@doe.org>" + +(3) Remove unused messages (optional) + Remove messages that have been marked as obsolete. + Such messages start with "#~". + + The cleanup script will also do that (see next step). + +(4) Clean up + This is very important to make sure the translation works on all systems. + Comment-out all non-translated strings. There are two types: + - items marked with "#, fuzzy" + - items with an empty msgstr + You can do this with the cleanup.vim script: + + :source cleanup.vim + + Background: on Solaris an empty msgstr results in an empty message; GNU + gettext ignores empty strings and items marked with "#, fuzzy". + + This also removes the line numbers from the file, so that patches are not + messed up by changes in line numbers and show the actual changes in the + text. + +(5) Check: + + While editing the .po file: + :source check.vim + + From the command line: + vim -S check.vim xx.po + make xx.mo + + Look out for syntax errors and fix them. + + +USING GETTEXT WITHOUT ICONV + +When using gettext which doesn't support iconv, the encoding of the .mo file +must match your active encoding. For that you must convert and change +encoding of *.po file in advance of generating the *.mo file. For example, to +convert ja.po to EUC-JP (supposed as your system encoding): + +(1) Convert the file encoding: + + mv ja.po ja.po.orig + iconv -f utf-8 -t euc-jp ja.po.orig > ja.po + +(2) Rewrite charset declaration in the file: + + Open ja.po find this line: + "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n" + You should change "charset" like this: + "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=euc-jp\n" + +There are examples in the Makefile for the conversions already supported. |