From: Uwe Freese <mail_at_uwe-freese.de>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 15:42:03 +0200

Hello Daniel,

Daniel Stenberg wrote on Wednesday, August 21, 2002, 8:22:54 PM:

DS> I suggest that each language gets a text-file in a format similar to this:

DS> ------ example-language.txt ------
DS> # we support comments

DS> # a couple of fields for each phrase

DS> # Description of the string
DS> DESC: English language comment for the translator

DS> # The original (english?) language phrase
DS> ORIG: USB Mode

DS> # The ID, must be unique among all phrases
DS> ID: USB_MODE

DS> # The localized version of the ORIG phrase
DS> TEXT: USB Mode
DS> --------- end of language -------

Here are my suggestions:

*** No original strings:
I think the IDs should be more or less self-explaining, so we can live
without the "original string". And there will be a english language file
shipped with rockbox, so the user who wants to make a new language file
can look into it and see how the english text is. So I suggest not to
add this "original text" in all the other language files. Also we would
have to change ALL language files if a "original" string changes to make
it consistent.

*** No DESC:
Also if the files are named with the language, we can live without the
DESC: line. I suggest LANGUAGE.lang files in a /language folder.

***Format:

------ english.lang ------
# we support comments

# ID string
USB_MODE USB mode
MENU_SOUND Sound Settings
MENU_GENERAL General Settings

--------- end of english.lang -------

The parser that creates the files for compilation should then identify
the first word (without spaces) as the ID and the rest (from the next
non-space character on to the end) as the text. So the user can adjust
the text with spaces and/or tabs.

Bye, Uwe.
Received on 2002-09-03