Translations

I will gladly add contributed translations to this git repository if translators send them to me. Generate a Github pull request or attach your contributed files (see below) to the forum thread.

Instructions

Note: Place .po and .mo files in usr/share/locale/<language>/LC_MESSAGES/findnrun.po, where <language> is the language code for your language, i.e., 'de' for German, 'fr' for French, 'ru' for Russian, 'pt_BR' for Brasilian Portuguese, and so on. The language code is part of the system locale, which includes additional regional settings.

Full example for German

# Start at the top directory of this git repository.
cd find-n-run

# Create relative folder structure for your locale.
mkdir -p usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES

# Generate a new .po file from the .pot template file.
cd usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES
msginit -i ../../../doc/nls/findnrun/findnrun.pot -o findnrun.po --locale=de --no-wrap

# Now edit and translate findnrun.po...

# Then generate the .mo file.
msgfmt -o findnrun.mo findnrun.po
# Temporarily install the .mo file in the message catalog.
mkdir -p /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES
ln -s `pwd`/findnrun.mo /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/findnrun.mo

# Now test the .mo file... (Note 1)
# Then send .mo and .po files for inclusion in this repository (Note 2)

Νote 1: Test all main window and about dialog elements. Before testing you should set the system locale code to the translation language. If for some reason you can't set the system locale, you might try faking proper language setup by running these shell commands (replace all occurrences of de with the language code that you are testing):

# Start at the top directory of this git repository.
cd find-n-run
# Temporarily link message catalog file
test -d /usr/share/locale/de || ln -s `pwd`/usr/share/locale/de /usr/share/locale/de
test -e /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/findnrun.mo || ln -s `pwd`/usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/findnrun.mo /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/findnrun.mo
# Set LANGUAGE to the FULL language locale
env LANGUAGE=de_DE.UTF-8 usr/bin/findnrun --geometry=
# Clean up temporary links
test -L /usr/share/locale/de && rm /usr/share/locale/de
test -L /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/findnrun.mo && rm /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/findnrun.mo

These settings should be enough for findnrun to show translated messages. However, they are not sufficient for findnrun to also display translated application comments. (Translated comments are included in many .desktop files). To be able to also view translated comments you do need to set the system locale code properly by following the exact procedure of your linux variant. For instance, the steps for Fatdog64 linux involve installing the NLS SFS, dropping to the console, setting the locale code and variables, and restarting X:

# First download fd64-nls_701.sfs with the SFS manager
load_sfs.sh --load /path/to/fd64-nls_701.sfs # load SFS
/usr/sbin/fatdog-choose-locale.sh # choose, i.e., German for Germany
# Close all windows and press Ctrl+Alt+BackSpace
LANG=de_DE.UTF-8; export LANG # German for Germany
LANGUAGE=$LANG; export LANGUAGE
xwin # restart X with German for Germany as a back-end.

findnrun looks at environment variable LANG to determine the locale code of .desktop file comments. Start a terminal and type:

echo $LANG # It should match German for Germany

Note 2: If at all possible, please generate a Github pull request for your contribution. Otherwise attach the two files to the project forum thread - see README for URL info.

Desktop file

Open file usr/share/applications/findnrun.desktop and check whether translations into your language already exist for fields Comment and Name If not, send the translated fields to me via one of the mechanisms noted above. Translating at least the Comment field is recommended.

example for Spanish

Name=Find'N'Run
Name[es]=Buscar y ejecutar
Comment=Find and run apps very quickly
Comment[es]=Buscar y ejecutar aplicaciones muy rápidamente

Help files

The documents that you are reading online are also included in findnrun as run-time help files. The help sub-system can display HTML documents and markdown documents (using mdview). HTML is preferred because the browser is ubiquitous while mdview isn't.

To translate the help files you can either start from the markdown source, or directly from the HTML source. Markdown should be preferred in most cases because it is easier than HTML, and because you will start from the most up-to-date English source files. I imagine HTML would be preferred if your language had very special layout needs that HTML only can provide. Another reason to prefer HTML vs. markdown is that with HTML your testing cycle will be shorter, because you will not have to depend on me to convert markdown to HTML (see instructions [A]). So, as a translator of the Help documentation you need to first decide your English source file format: markdown vs. HTML, then proceed as follows.

[A] Instructions for markdown

The set of English markdown source files is located on github here.

Note on markdown syntax

Avoid being too creative with your markdown syntax. Keep it simple. While the publishing process supports Markdown Extra I recommend that you stick to the much more limited, but effective, markdown syntax that mdview supports. All .md files in this project follow this guideline.

[B] Instructions for HTML

If you prefer HTML to markdown, then the set of English markdown source files is archived on github as a tar.gz file here.

Thank you

I am committed to enabling software localization. I believe it is important in widening the adoption of linux, and it is respectful of other cultures. Your help in providing an array of language translations is very much appreciated. Thank you.