EiffelStudio Internationalization
Contents
Overview
Since i18n have been mostly implemented in Eiffel, Eiffel Studio is coming into the new era of internationalization. The goal of i18n integration is to provide multiple language support in Eiffel Studio and let users switch languages of the interface easily at runtime.
Steps to integrate i18n
Non-editor part
The first step concentrates on the interface of Eiffel Studio. All buttons, labels, tool tips and grids that are directly used by Eiffel Studio project.
- Collect all static interface strings in the system., including some context dependent strings.
- This is not necessary, but doing this give us better management and code quality. Only INTERFACE_NAMES knows i18n.
- Change all types in INTERFACE_NAMES, EB_METRIC_NAMES, CONF_INTERFACE_NAMES, WARNING_MESSAGES to be STRING_GENERAL. Caller should be adapted correspondingly.For some stings, two versions maybe needed. One for internal use, the other one for the interface,especially for strings saved as preferences and strings constants used in configure XML files.
- Rewrite bodies of those strings using i18n translation routines, STRING_32 instances are actually produced.
- Modify places using EV_CONSTANTS, make new classes if needed. e.g. EV_CONFIRMATION_DIALOG; EV_WARNING_DIALOG are not usable.
- Write scripts to draw strings from default.xml. "Directory", names and descriptions of preferences are also needed to be translated.
- Find a solution to wizards, since some of them are external excutables.
- Build language menus to switch language.
- Make interface classes locale observers so that all tools know when interface names should be reread.
- Solve the problems in vision2.
- In Chinese, menu chars are conventionally parenthesized and under scored following the menu text. This can be done by the translator.
- Handle "&" as both char and wchar for menu items.
- Fix "tab" issue for menu items.
- Integrate i18n .po generation tool. It has been done in i18n branch.
- using .po generation tool integrated ec to compile an ec in which interface names have been adapted.
- Use .po generation tool to generate estudio.pot file. The .po generation tool generally extracts strings that are taken as parameters of `translated' and `translated_plural' and produce .pot file.
- Since strings used in EiffelStudio not only come from the source code. Write scripts to extract them and merge them into estudio.pot. Strings should be extracted from: default.xml → descriptions of preferences
- Duplicate estudio.pot file to .po files with names of locale ids. Each .po file represents a locale. i18n library read .mo files with correct names of id. Though .po files are not necessary to have names of locale id, .mo files are one-to-one produced from .po files. So using locale ids as names of .po files is reasonable.
- Translators using .po editor open .po files and translate interface names to all kinds of languages.
- Generate .mo files using .mo generation script.
Editor part
- This step might be more complicated. And will be done later after the first step. Probably after 6.0 release. This step concentrates on extending the editor library to accept wide characters. Internationalization of any output directed to the editor is done in the step. Many existing tools might be affected, search tool, formatting tools etc.
- Encoding conversion facility is needed.
File structure
Repository
All files are stored in %EIFFEL_SRC%\Delivery\studio\lang
%EIFFEL_SRC%\Delivery\studio\lang\script
Place where scripts for generating .mo files are put. The scripts are invoked when building a delivery.
%EIFFEL_SRC%\Delivery\studio\lang\mo_files
Place to put .mo files. Those files are actually used at runtime. Only .mo files need to be included in a delivery.
%EIFFEL_SRC%\Delivery\studio\lang\po_files
Place to put .pot file and .po files.
Delivery
Windows: %ISE_EIFFEL%\studio\lang\mo_files\*.mo Unix: /usr/share/locale/(product_version_name)/*.mo
Maintenance
General
- .pot file is PO template file which is generated by .po generation tool. .pot file is simply untranslated file with only source entries and blank target entries.
- .po files are the files translators actually work on. Whenever translators get a new version of .pot file, they should update .po file they are working on from the .pot file. Update is normally done by third party tools. Tools like poEdit give lists of new strings and obsolete strings. And in the full list new strings and fuzzy strings are marked in different colors by poEdit.
- Fuzzy strings are applied when updating. msgmerge of Gettext make slightly changed strings fuzzy. When the checking of fuzzy strings is done, translators should remove fuzzy marks.
- Obsolete strings are commented out at the end of .po files when merging. Those comments can be removed at anytime if we wish.
- When the translation or modification is done, translators only need to commit .po file(s) that they are working on.
- Whenever new languages are decided to add in. New .po file can be added directly in %EIFFEL_SRC%\Delivery\studio\lang\po_files. Eiffel Studio should have the ability to detect at runtime what languages are available.
Translator Guide
- Update $EIFFEL_SRC/Delivery.
- Download a po editor. poEdit for Windows and KBabel or gtranslator for KDE and Gnome.
- In $EIFFEL_SRC/Delivery/studio/lang/po_files, find out the .po file(s) one should work on. Take zh_CN.po as example. Open zh_CN.po in po editor. In the po editor, there should be a command to update from pot file. Update from $EIFFEL_SRC/Delivery/studio/lang/po_files/estudio.pot within the po editor. If there is any change took place in estudio.pot, the po editor should inform. The translator fills empty entries, solves FUZZY strings or modifies translated entries.
- When the translation is done, just commit those modified po files.
- Make sure that po files are saved in UTF-8 encoding.
Developer Guide
- The major thing a developer should take care of is code quality. All names need to be translated should in principle be put in framework/interface_names. Whenever a string of sentence is needed in the interface, just leave it as a sentence to be translated. Be careful to SEPERATE a sentence into terms or phrases, because ways to sequence those terms again into sentence vary in different languages. Plural form should be used whenever needed. There are a lot of examples in INTERFACE_NAMES.
- If a developer wants to take changes into effect immediately, see what a maintainer and a translator should do.
Maintainer Guide
- Build po generation tool which is located at internal svn repository /ise_svn/trunk/Src/tools/po_generation_tool.
- Make sure gettext and perl is installed. On windows cygwin cantains perl and gettext modules.
- When there are new or modified strings need to be translated in the code. $EIFFEL_SRC/Delivery/studio/lang/estudio.pot should be regenerated.
To regenerate estudio.pot, one should do: po_generation_tool -D $EIFFEL_SRC/Eiffel $EIFFEL_SRC/framework -o $EIFFEL_SRC/Delivery/studio/lang/estudio.pot On windows: $EIFFEL_SRC/Delivery/studio/script/build_preference_entries.bat On Unix: perl $EIFFEL_SRC/Delivery/studio/script/preference_po_extraction.pl msguniq -o ../po_files/estudio.pot ../po_files/estudio.pot
- Commit the estudio.pot file to let translators to update.
- To add a new language support, simply copy estudio.pot to LOCALE_ID.po where LOCALE_ID should be:
Case 1: LL-RR
Case 2: LL-SS-RR
Case 3: LL_RR
Case 4: LL_RR.Enc
Case 5: LL_RR@SS [sometimes the SS is simply variant information]
LL is a two-letter language identifier from ISO 639-1 or, if there is none, a three-letter
identifier from ISO 639-2/T
RR is a two-letter country coding from ISO 3166-1, except when it is not (en-029 ('English (Carribean)') under Windows)
SS under windows is mostly either 'Latn' or 'Cyrl'. @SS on linux is sometimes useful and sometimes meaningless
List for reference:
aa
ab
ace
ach
ada
ady
ae
af
afa
afh
af_ZA
ain
ak
akk
ale
alg
alt
am
am_ET
an
ang
anp
apa
ar
arc
arn
arp
art
arw
as
ast
ast_ES
ath
aus
av
awa
ay
az
az_IR
ba
bad
bai
bal
ban
bas
bat
be
bej
bem
ber
bg
bh
bho
bi
bik
bin
bla
bm
bn
bn_IN
bnt
bo
br
bra
bs
btk
bua
bug
byn
C
ca
cad
ca_ES
ca_ES@valencian
cai
car
cau
ce
ceb
cel
ch
chb
chg
chk
chm
chn
cho
chp
chr
chy
cmc
co
cop
cpe
cpf
cpp
cr
crh
crp
cs
csb
cs_CZ
cu
cus
cv
cy
da
dak
dar
day
de
de_AT
de_CH
de_DE
del
den
dgr
din
doi
dra
dsb
dua
dum
dv
dyu
dz
ee
efi
egy
eka
el
el_GR
elx
en
en_AU
en@boldquot
en_CA
en_GB
enm
en@quot
en_US
eo
es
es_AR
es_CL
es_CO
es_CR
es_DO
es_EC
es_ES
es_GT
es_HN
es_MX
es_NI
es_PA
es_PE
es_PR
es_SV
es_UY
es_VE
et
et_EE
eu
eu_ES
ewo
fa
fa_IR
fan
fat
ff
fi
fil
fiu
fj
fo
fon
fr
fr_BE
fr_CA
fr_CH
fr_FR
frm
fro
frr
frs
fur
fy
ga
gaa
gay
gba
gd
gem
gez
gil
gl
gmh
gn
goh
gon
gor
got
gr
grb
grc
gsw
gu
gv
gwi
ha
hai
haw
he
he_IL
hi
hil
him
hit
hmn
ho
hr
hr_HR
hsb
ht
hu
hu_HU
hup
hy
hz
ia
iba
id
ie
ig
ii
ijo
ik
ilo
inc
ine
inh
io
ira
iro
is
it
it_CH
it_IT
iu
ja
ja_JP
jbo
jpr
jrb
jv
ka
kaa
kab
kac
kam
kar
kaw
kbd
kg
kha
khi
kho
ki
kj
kk
kl
km
kmb
kn
ko
kok
ko_KR
kos
kpe
kr
krc
krl
kro
kru
ks
ku
kum
kut
kv
kw
ky
la
lad
lah
lam
lb
lez
lg
li
ln
lo
lol
loz
lt
lu
lua
lui
lun
luo
lus
lv
mad
mag
mai
mak
man
map
mas
mdf
mdr
men
mg
mga
mh
mi
mic
min
mis
mk
mkh
ml
mn
mnc
mni
mno
mo
moh
mos
mr
ms
mt
mul
mun
mus
mwl
mwr
my
my_MM
myn
myv
na
nah
nai
nap
nb
nb_NO
nd
nds
nds@NFE
ne
new
ng
nia
nic
niu
nl
nl_BE
nl_NL
nn
no
nog
non
nqo
nr
nso
nub
nv
nwc
ny
nym
nyn
nyo
nzi
oc
oj
om
or
os
osa
ota
oto
pa
paa
pag
pal
pam
pap
pau
peo
phi
phn
pi
pl
pl_PL
pon
pra
pro
ps
pt
pt_BR
pt_PT
qu
raj
rap
rar
rm
rn
ro
roa
rom
ru
rup
ru_RU
rw
sa
sad
sah
sai
sal
sam
sas
sat
sc
scn
sco
sd
se
sel
sem
sg
sga
sgn
shn
si
sid
sio
sit
sk
sl
sla
sl_SI
sm
sma
smi
smj
smn
sms
sn
snk
so
sog
son
sq
sq_AL
sr
sr@ije
sr@Latn
srn
srr
ss
ssa
st
su
suk
sus
sux
sv
sv_SE
sw
syr
ta
tai
te
tem
ter
tet
tg
th
ti
tig
tiv
tk
tkl
tl
tlh
tli
tmh
tn
to
tog
tpi
tr
ts
tsi
tt
tum
tup
tut
tvl
tw
ty
tyv
udm
ug
uga
uk
uk_UA
umb
und
ur
uz
uz@Latn
vai
ve
vi
vo
vot
wa
wak
wal
war
was
wen
wo
xal
xh
yao
yap
yi
yo
ypk
za
zap
zen
zh
zh_CN
zh_HK
zh_TW
znd
zu
zun
