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SVARLANG.LIB - THE SVARDOS TRANSLATION C LIBRARY
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Copyright (C) 2021-2022 Mateusz Viste
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SvarLANG is a library and tooling for enabling SvarDOS applications to easily
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support multiple languages.
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### PREPARING TRANSLATION FILES ###
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The translation files must be CATS-style text files in the usual format:
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1.1:Hello, World!
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1.2:Help screen
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2.0:Type /? for more options
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The files must be named as EN.TXT, DE.TXT, FR.TXT, etc. Then, they must be
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"compiled" into SvarLANG's binary format using the TLUMACZ tool:
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tlumacz en fr pl (...)
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The first language provided in the command line is the reference language and
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is used both as the default (embedded in the application) language, as well as
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to substitute messages missing in other languages.
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TLUMACZ computes two files:
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* OUT.LNG - the binary file that contains all translations
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* DEFLANG.C - the default translations that will be embedded into the program
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Then, DEFLANG.C must be compiled and linked to your program along with
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SVARLNGx.LIB. From there you will be able to use SvarLANG calls, typically:
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svarlang_load("myprogram", "pl", "."); /* load .\myprogram.lng */
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puts(svarlang_str(2, 0)); /* display the string with id 2.0 */
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Read svarlang.h for more information about available functions.
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### ENVIRONMENT ###
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The program translation file should be named "PROGNAME.LNG", where PROGNAME
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is the program's name. This file should be placed in a well-known location,
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typically the program's own directory. An exception are SvarDOS "CORE" programs
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that store their translation files in a directory pointed out by %NLSPATH%.
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The %LANG% environment variable usually defines what language should be loaded,
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albeit the program can just as well provide its own controls for language
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selection and pass this information to svarlang_load() accordingly.
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### WHY IS IT BETTER THAN CATS? ###
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The CATS library is heavier and slower, as it embeds a text-file parser.
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Translations also take more disk space since each file is in a separate file
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leading to cluster waste. Finally, CATS requires default strings to be part of
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the application's source code, while SvarLANG keeps all strings in TXT files
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and embedds the default one inside the application in an automated way at
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compile time.
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There is also a licensing issue: CATS/Kitten libraries are published under the
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terms of a viral license. SvarLANG, on the other hand, is published under a
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truly free, liberal license (MIT).
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======================================================================= EOF ===
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