poedit, GTranslator --- any of them would work well). Please install
them.
-You would then need to clone the git-gui internationalization project
-repository, so that you can work on it:
+You would then need to clone the git-gui project repository and create
+a feature branch to begin working:
- $ git clone mob@repo.or.cz:/srv/git/git-gui/git-gui-i18n.git/
- $ cd git-gui-i18n
- $ git checkout --track -b mob origin/mob
- $ git config remote.origin.push mob
+ $ git clone git://repo.or.cz/git-gui.git
+ $ cd git-gui.git
+ $ git checkout -b my-translation
-The "git checkout" command creates a 'mob' branch from upstream's
-corresponding branch and makes it your current branch. You will be
-working on this branch.
-
-The "git config" command records in your repository configuration file
-that you would push "mob" branch to the upstream when you say "git
-push".
+The "git checkout" command creates a new branch to keep your work
+isolated and to make it simple to post your patch series when
+completed. You will be working on this branch.
2. Starting a new language.
-In the git-gui-i18n directory is a po/ subdirectory. It has a
-handful files whose names end with ".po". Is there a file that has
-messages in your language?
+In the git-gui directory is a po/ subdirectory. It has a handful of
+files whose names end with ".po". Is there a file that has messages
+in your language?
If you do not know what your language should be named, you need to find
it. This currently follows ISO 639-1 two letter codes:
"printf()"-like functions. Make sure "%s", "%d", and "%%" in your
translated messages match the original.
- When you have to change the order of words, you can add "<number>\$"
+ When you have to change the order of words, you can add "<number>$"
between '%' and the conversion ('s', 'd', etc.) to say "<number>-th
parameter to the format string is used at this point". For example,
if the original message is like this:
and if for whatever reason your translation needs to say weight first
and then length, you can say something like:
- "WEIGHT IS %2\$d, LENGTH IS %1\$d"
+ "WEIGHT IS %2$d, LENGTH IS %1$d"
+
+ A format specification with a '*' (asterisk) refers to *two* arguments
+ instead of one, hence the succeeding argument number is two higher
+ instead of one. So, a message like this
+
+ "%s ... %*i of %*i %s (%3i%%)"
- The reason you need a backslash before dollar sign is because
- this is a double quoted string in Tcl language, and without
- it the letter introduces a variable interpolation, which you
- do not want here.
+ is equivalent to
+
+ "%1$s ... %2$*i of %4$*i %6$s (%7$3i%%)"
- A long message can be split across multiple lines by ending the
string with a double quote, and starting another string on the next
$ make
$ LANG=af ./git-gui.sh
-When you are satisfied with your translation, commit your changes, and
-push it back to the 'mob' branch:
+When you are satisfied with your translation, commit your changes then submit
+your patch series to the maintainer and the Git mailing list:
$ edit po/af.po
... be sure to update Last-Translator: and
... PO-Revision-Date: lines.
$ git add po/af.po
- $ git commit -m 'Started Afrikaans translation.'
- $ git push
+ $ git commit -s -m 'git-gui: added Afrikaans translation.'
+ $ git send-email --to 'git@vger.kernel.org' \
+ --cc 'Pat Thoyts <patthoyts@users.sourceforge.net>' \
+ --subject 'git-gui: Afrikaans translation' \
+ master..
3. Updating your translation.
In any case, make sure you are up-to-date before starting your work:
+ $ git checkout master
$ git pull
In the former case, you will edit po/af.po (again, replace "af" with
$ msgmerge -U po/af.po po/git-gui.pot
-[NEEDSWORK: who is responsible for updating po/git-gui.pot file by
-running xgettext? IIRC, Christian recommended against running it
-nilly-willy because it can become a source of unnecessary merge
-conflicts. Perhaps we should mention something like "
-
-The po/git-gui.pot file is updated by the internationalization
-coordinator from time to time. You _could_ update it yourself, but
-translators are discouraged from doing so because we would want all
-language teams to be working off of the same version of git-gui.pot.
-
-" here?]
-
This updates po/af.po (again, replace "af" with your language
code) so that it contains msgid lines (i.e. the original) that
your translation did not have before. There are a few things to
- New messages added to the software will have msgstr lines with empty
strings. You would need to translate them.
+
+The po/git-gui.pot file is updated by the internationalization
+coordinator from time to time. You _could_ update it yourself, but
+translators are discouraged from doing so because we would want all
+language teams to be working off of the same version of git-gui.pot.
+
+****************************************************************
+
+This section is a note to the internationalization coordinator, and
+translators do not have to worry about it too much.
+
+The message template file po/git-gui.pot needs to be kept up to date
+relative to the software the translations apply to, and it is the
+responsibility of the internationalization coordinator.
+
+When updating po/git-gui.pot file, however, _never_ run "msgmerge -U
+po/xx.po" for individual language translations, unless you are absolutely
+sure that there is no outstanding work on translation for language xx.
+Doing so will create unnecessary merge conflicts and force needless
+re-translation on translators. The translator however may not have access
+to the msgmerge tool, in which case the coordinator may run it for the
+translator as a service.
+
+But mistakes do happen. Suppose a translation was based on an older
+version X, the POT file was updated at version Y and then msgmerge was run
+at version Z for the language, and the translator sent in a patch based on
+version X:
+
+ ? translated
+ /
+ ---X---Y---Z (master)
+
+The coordinator could recover from such a mistake by first applying the
+patch to X, replace the translated file in Z, and then running msgmerge
+again based on the updated POT file and commit the result. The sequence
+would look like this:
+
+ $ git checkout X
+ $ git am -s xx.patch
+ $ git checkout master
+ $ git checkout HEAD@{1} po/xx.po
+ $ msgmerge -U po/xx.po po/git-gui.pot
+ $ git commit -c HEAD@{1} po/xx.po
+
+State in the message that the translated messages are based on a slightly
+older version, and msgmerge was run to incorporate changes to message
+templates from the updated POT file. The result needs to be further
+translated, but at least the messages that were updated by the patch that
+were not changed by the POT update will survive the process and do not
+need to be re-translated.