[sword-devel] i18n of sword website

Tue, 25 Feb 2003 17:52:01 +0100

Just a quick note,
we don't use gettext on bibletie.info anymore, because it turned out it's ways 
too slow for websites where we had to check whether a string is already 
included in the catalogue.

I'll write some comments on Troy's eMail soon.

Joachim

> Troy,
>
> I don't really know the matter very well, but I'll say something anyway,
> risking mistakes. Joachim, maybe you can comment on this.
>
> The main objection I'd have is that you need to reinvent the wheel
> completely. The GNU gettext package offers so many cool features that you
> would not implement, even if you create a java-based solution. It operates
> on standardized files (.po and .gmo) and has tools for collecting messages,
> which are kindof intelligent (such as listing identical messages only once,
> and use existing translations when merging new strings in an existing
> catalog). Joachim would have to say more about this.
>
> Additionally, there is no reason to have multiple message catalogues. One
> for the entire website is enough.
>
> Now here my suggestion (not knowing all details):
> -mark all strings in the source with i18n()
> -use the gettext tools to collect the messages and set up the cataloges
> -use JNI calls to c++ (should be no problem on the server -- does not need
> to be portable) to access the gettext functions (see
> http://www.gnu.org/manual/gettext/html_chapter/gettext_toc.html) - both for
> the display of messages, and the translation interface
>
> Martin
>
> Am Dienstag, 25. Februar 2003 13:28 schrieb Troy A. Griffitts:
> > Joachim,
> > 	I had a look at the i18n taglib from jakarta and don't like it.  I
> > don't like the idea of replacing all strings in the source files with
> > some key name.  It makes the page very unreadable.
> >
> > 	Martin showed me some of your stuff earlier today and it was great.
> > Here's my plan for a jsp implementation.  Let me know what you think
> > (other people please let me know, as well).
> >
> > 	I have commited two new classes to jsword-old cvs to handle a new
> > taglib package: org.crosswire.web.i18n
> >
> > 	So far, the 2 classes will enable 2 new tags in jsp:
> >
> >
> > <t:contextStart />
> > <t:t>My text to translate</t:t>
> >
> > We can call the tags whatever we like, but I wanted to keep the prefix
> > short ('t' for translation taglib) and the actual translate tag short
> > ('t' for translate), since they're gonna be everywhere.
> >
> >
> > Currently the idea for the handler for contextStart will look in the
> > users session for a locale name.  If one is set, it will look for a
> > serialized HashMap in a file called ./i18n/<pageName>.<localeName>
> > If it finds the file, it deserializes it and save the HashMap into the
> > session with the key "i18n.transMap"
> > It will also clear another session property "i18n.transKeys" that is a
> > Vector of Strings.  This will happen at the beginning of each page.
> >
> > The t handler currently looks in "i18n.transMap" HashMap for a value to
> > the key of it's body, e.g. "My text to translate" would be the key.  If
> > it finds a value, it replaces the body of the tag with this text.
> >
> > This part is done and in CVS.
> >
> > It will also add the initial body value to the Vector of Strings in the
> > session at "i18n.transKeys"
> >
> > A 3rd call will be created, probably something like <t:contextEnd />
> > which will check to see if a 'translator' is logged in.  If so, it will
> > add a new link to the bottom of the page: _Translation_Maintenence_
> >
> > This link will take them to a translation page that will look for the
> > session Vector "i18n.transKeys", and also "i18n.transMap" (set from the
> > previous page), and display each key and any entry in the transMap that
> > matches those keys.  It will probably also display any keys in the
> > transMap that are there that didn't have a transKey entry (this means
> > that we probably changed something in the page) so the translator can
> > salvage any translation they may have done if the change is very minor.
> >   Obviously a new translation would have all the keys, and empty text
> > boxes for each one.  Once the user submits this page it will save all
> > the values in a new HashMap (so we clear out stale entries) and
> > serialize it out to the appropriate i18n/<pageName>.<localeName> file.
> >
> >
> > I think this works similar to your method.  Let me know what you think
> > and if you think we will run into any problems that you may have
> > encountered.
> >
> > Anyone wishing to help me with the remaining work on the new taglib
> > would be appreciated, as well (jsword guys) :)
> >
> > 	-Troy.
> >
> > Joachim Ansorg wrote:
> > > Daniel, that's a very useful and good idea!
> > >
> > > For www.bibletime.info we have a online translation tool in place which
> > > offers the possibility to translate and edit the messages of the chosen
> > > language online.
> > > The data is stored in a aSQL database.
> > >
> > > In my opinion the online translation tool is very useful for people who
> > > don't have programming skills.
> > >
> > > Thank you for spending your time about this topic!
> > > Joachim
> > >
> > > On Montag, 24. Februar 2003 19:50, Daniel Glassey wrote:
> > >>well, with the debate raging about plans for the web interface and
> > >>the importance of non-English stuff () it seems like a good time to
> > >>bring up the idea of translating the sword website into (at minimum)
> > >>appropriate languages, imho these would do for starters:
> > >>
> > >>Important imho:
> > >>German
> > >>Chinese Traditional and Simplified
> > >>Thai
> > >>Russian
> > >>Arabic
> > >>Korean?
> > >>
> > >>Other potentially useful imho:
> > >>Czech
> > >>Danish
> > >>Spanish
> > >>Finnish
> > >>French
> > >>Italian
> > >>Dutch
> > >>Vietnamese
> > >>others that there are modules for
> > >>
> > >>after that in importance are other languages people would like to
> > >>translate to.
> > >>
> > >>On an English only website non-English modules won't be as useful as
> > >>they could possibly be.
> > >>
> > >>Just one wee problem. There is no procedure for translating the site
> > >>yet, or core/essential bits of it set aside for translating. _If_
> > >>there is going to be a change to the website this should definitely
> > >>be part of it (see www.bibletime.info for one way to do it ;) )
> > >>
> > >>Do other people think this would be useful and do you think people
> > >>would be willing to do the translation?
> > >>
> > >>Regards,
> > >>Daniel
> > >>_______________________________________________
> > >>sword-devel mailing list
> > >>sword-devel@crosswire.org
> > >>http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > sword-devel@crosswire.org
> > http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
>
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-- 
Joachim Ansorg
www.bibletime.info
joachim.ansorgs.de