Re: open translations database

[Karl Eichwalder <keichwa gmx net>]

Alexandre Hautequest <hquest@fesppr.br> writes:

> I think we can reduce a huge amount of translatable messages if we got
> some "default" messages, and just use them instead of translate again
> in a new potfile.

Just create a Translation Memory using my recently announced po-toys
package: http://www.suse.de/~ke/po-toys/ ;)

Here is a somehow lengthy explanation I forgot to add to the release:


PO File Management

Karl Eichwalder
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Table of Contents
   Creating a PO File Translation Memory
   Using a PO File Translation Memory
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Creating a PO File Translation Memory

   A Translation Memory is a library of translations (messages, phrases,
   nouns) which could be used to initialize or normalize a translation
   project. You can use PO files to create such a Translation Memory.
   Since command line tools coming with the gettext package are able to
   merge and update PO files no special programs are needed.
   
   To merge two or more PO files use msgcomm; to merge the following
   three PO files with German translations issue the following command:
   
   msgcomm --more-than=0 --output=memory.de.po \
       gnome-libs/po/de.po \
       gnome-core/po/de.po \
       gnome-applets/po/de.po
   
   This command will collect all messages from all files and write them
   to the file memory.de.po. The first encountered message will win. The
   means the PO file with the best translations should come first. Use
   this technique with care. This command will happily collapse messages
   with the same msgids; sometimes the target language has to translate
   the same words differently!
   
   For convenience you can use the wrapper script po-make-memory.sh to
   write the file memory.LL.po:
   
   po-make-memory.sh -l LL FILE1.LL.po FILE2.LL.po
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Using a PO File Translation Memory

   You can use a PO file Translation Memory (cf. the section called
   Creating a PO File Translation Memory how to create a Translation
   Memory) to start a new project or to update and normalize existing PO
   files.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Starting a New Project File

   First you will create a so called POT file containing all strings to
   translate. xgettext will extract the strings form the program source
   file and write the POT file. Normaly the package will have a Makefile
   target $(package).pot which you can call in the po subdirectory:
   
   cd po
   make project.pot
   
   Then use msgmerge to extract translations from the memory file and
   merge them with the POT file:
   
   msgmerge --output-file=project.de.po memory.de.po project.pot
   
   Problem: This msgmerge command will also append not needed
   translations from the memory file to the file project.de.po and flag
   them as obsolete:
#~ msgid "Run Program"
#~ msgstr "Programm ausführen"

#~ msgid "Run"
#~ msgstr "Ausführen"

#~ msgid "Cancel"
#~ msgstr "Abbrechen"

#~ msgid "Select a program to run"
#~ msgstr "Ein Programm zum Ausführen auswählen"

   Remove the obsolete entries with a simple awk script:
awk '{if (/^#~/) exit; else print}' project.de.po > de.po

   Or sed (how to suppres the output of the current pattern space?):
sed '/^#~/q' project.de.po | sed '/^#~.*/d' > de.po

   For convenience you can use the wrapper script po-initialize.sh to
   write the file LL.po:
   
   po-initialize.sh memory.LL.po FILE.pot LL.po
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Updating or Normalizing a Project File

   Sometime it's needed to normalize or update a PO file using a
   Translation Memory file. The following command will do this job:
   
   cp de.po old-de.po
   msgcomm --more-than=1 --output=common.de.po memory.de.po old-de.po
   msgcomm --more-than=0 --output=de.po common.de.po old-de.po
   # rm -f common.de.po old-de.po
   
   For convenience you can use the wrapper script po-normalize.sh to
   write the file LL.po; the command:
   
   po-normalize.sh memory.de.po de.po
   
   will create new-de.po. Use the switch -o to override the input file
   de.po:
   
   po-normalize.sh -o memory.de.po de.po


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