LanguageHowto

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This Howto outlines the steps needed to localize for a new language and building a Localization team. This document is in brief, detailed steps needed for each category will be added in seperate wiki pages.

To support a new language in linux we need the following information. Locale is the most basic part , without it a language cannot be used by applications. Next comes the text display and input. After which the localization work - mainly translations are to be done.


Locale info

  • Script information - what script is used by the language, is it supported in Unicode
  • Character set - the basic charaters used in script eg devanagari alphabets
  • Collation info - sort order - what the sorting order will be used for the characters
  • Numeric format - format for numbers, how they will be written, digit grouping, decimal symbol etc.
  • Month, weekday names - in full and abbreviated form written for that language.
  • Date , Time format - dd/mm/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy etc.
  • AM/PM strings - used with time
  • Currency symbol - local currency symbol - eg INR / rupee, dollar , euro etc.
  • salutations - How Mr, Mrs, Ms etc are written in local language.
  • Yes/No expressions - how yes (y) , no (n) are written.


Displaying language text

  • Text rendering rules
    • character combination rules, conjunct formation rules need for text renderer
  • Fonts
    • Having unicode range of script
    • Opentype Fonts


Input methods

  • Xkb/xmodmap/ console keymaps
  • phonetic/ transliterated input methods


GUI Translation

Translation of UI messages , GUI dialogs, menus etc. Initial work is to coin terms in your language for techincal terms , or words meaning different when used in context with computers eg. file, save, help, cut , copy , paste , floppy , folder , directory etc. Gnome glossary is a collection of such words/terms which are very common in the UI text or documentation. So translation work starts with translating the glossary and standardizing upon it. Further translation work becomes very easy based on this.

A copy of the Gnome glossary is available at http://www.indlinux.org/downloads/gnomegloss/GnomeGlossary.pot .

Work can start from this file & then further expanded to PO translations once a standard translated terminology is reached upon.


Doc Translation

Translation of documentation ,ie manuals, howtos, online help, man pages etc.


Team building

  • Need of Coordinator - should work passionately towards the effort , take initiatives, motivate & keep pushing people, work on expanding the effort
  • A tech lead - should have all the localization knowhow, able to handle development tools , CVS etc. Keep the team support infrastructure running
  • Volunteers - the ones who will do the actual work, people will be needed to work on all above areas.


Team infrastructure

  • Website - which will be the public interface , for others to know about the effort, team, & ongoing activities.
  • Mailing list - for communicating between team members spread across locations.
  • IRC/Chat channel - if most team members are online , they can communicate via a chat channel on IRC/ICQ or any other server. IRC channels can be easily created on irc.gnome.org or irc.freenode.net . Read http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/irctutorial.html for more on how to use IRC.
  • Live meetings - Once in a fortnight ( 1-2 times a month ), team members should meet in person and discuss activity progress.
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