7.9 Translating ChessDB to other languages from English
ChessDB is written in such a way that the text can easily be translated to other langauges. This section of the tutorial explains how to translate to a new langauge and how to update pre-existing langauge files. At the time of writing, there are lanagugae files for Czech, Dutch, German, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Norweigen, Polish, Portugese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish and Swedish. People are welcome to add other langauges if they choose.
Updating a pre-existing language file
There are 4 files associated with the English langauge. The latest versions are regularly updated and placed on the Sourceforge CVS server, so anyone can always get the latest versions. These 4 files are- english-basic.tcl, which has all the translations for the menus, dialog boxes, error messages and all other text you will usually see in the program. ChessDB also has tips and help pages. These are not stored in 'english-basic.tcl', but instead in the other files listed below.
- english-help.tcl has all the help pages, which one gets if one pushes F1 in most places of the program. There is a 'getting started' guide in this file too.
- english-tips.tcl provides a number of tips on using ChessDB. At the time of writing (February 2007), there are about 40 tips. It is hope to expand these. The tips are displayed in the program as 'Tip of the Day'.
- english-gpl.tcl This is a copy of the GPL, so it can be seen in the software.
- Czech czech-basic.tcl, czech-help.tcl, czech-tips.tcl and czech-gpl.tcl
- Dutch nederlan-basic.tcl, nederlan-help.tcl, nederlan-tips.tcl and nederlan-gpl.tcl
- French francais-basic.tcl, francais-help.tcl, francais-tips.tcl and francais-gpl.tcl
- German deutsch-basic.tcl, deutsch-help.tcl, deutsch-tips.tcl and deutshch-gpl.tcl
- Spanish spanish-basic.tcl, spanish-help.tcl, spanish-tips.tcl and spanish-gpl.tcl
Format of the most important file - xxxx-basic.tcl
All lines in this file must be either:- Blank, in which case they are ingored
- A comment, which starts with a hash (#) in which case the line is ignored.
- translate which is one of 3 special lines in the file xxxx-basic.tcl. A typical translate line in english-basic.tcl is:
translate E NotBelow210 {The TWIC web site does not archive issues older than 210}
A similar line in the French file (francais-basic.tcl) would be
translate F NotBelow210 {Le site web de TWIC n'archive pas les num\351ro plus vieux que le 210}
- menuText which is one of 3 special lines in the file xxxx-basic.tcl
A typical MenuText line in the English file will be:
menuText E ToolsOpReport "Opening Report" 0 {Generate an opening report for the current position}
and in the Swedish file it is:
menuText W ToolsOpReport "Öppningsrapport" 0 {Skapa en öppningsrapport utifrån den aktuella ställningen}
- helpMsg which is one of 3 special lines in the file xxxx-basic.tcl
A typical line in english-basic.tcl would be:
helpMsg E .button.autoplay {Autoplay moves (key: Ctrl+Z)}
and in the Swedish file it is:
helpMsg W .button.autoplay {Autospel (kortkommando: Ctrl+Z)}
Most people tend to download the file from Sourceforge, then email it to me. I will then commit it back to the CVS, after I check it confirms to the file format. I have automated scripts which can do this, which I can share with interested parties if they want, but these need a UNIX or Linux machine to work. Generally, if you try to preserve the file format, all slight issues I can resolve.
If you would like to contribute to the tutorial or see anything that should be updated, corrected or improved, please contact David Kirkby. But please note David only speaks English.
Website administered by Dr. David Kirkby
This page was last modified: September 16, 2007. 10:41:41 am GMT