| 1,14 → 1,71 |
|---|
| tlumacz is a "compiler" that builds the SvarCOM multi-lang ressource file out |
| of a collection of CATS/Kitten text files. |
| |
| usage: tlumacz en fr pl ... |
| SVARLANG.LIB - THE SVARDOS TRANSLATION C LIBRARY |
| |
| tlumacz generates a SVARCOM.LNG file that contains all language ressources. |
| This file must be then placed in the %NLSPATH% directory so SvarCOM can find it. |
| SvarCOM's language is controlled by the LANG variable (eg. "SET LANG=PL"). |
| |
| the first language acts as a reference, its strings will be used to fill any |
| missing translations in other files. |
| SvarLANG is a library and tooling for enabling SvarDOS applications to easily |
| support multiple languages. |
| |
| a DEFAULT.LNG file is also generated, it contains only translation strings for |
| the reference language. This file is only useful for building SvarCOM. |
| |
| ### PREPARING TRANSLATION FILES ### |
| |
| The translation files must be CATS-style text files in the usual format: |
| |
| 1.1:Hello, World! |
| 1.2:Help screen |
| 2.0:Type /? for more options |
| |
| The files must be named as EN.TXT, DE.TXT, FR.TXT, etc. Then, they must be |
| "compiled" into SvarLANG's binary format using the TLUMACZ tool: |
| |
| tlumacz en fr pl (...) |
| |
| The first language provided in the command line is the reference language and |
| is used both as the default (embedded in the application) language, as well as |
| to substitute messages missing in other languages. |
| |
| TLUMACZ computes two files: |
| |
| * OUT.LNG - the binary file that contains all translations |
| * DEFLANG.C - the default translations that will be embedded into the program |
| |
| Then, DEFLANG.C must be compiled and linked to your program along with |
| SVARLNGx.LIB. From there, you will be able to use the following calls: |
| |
| /* loads translations for program PROGNAME, language LANG, in the path NLSPATH. |
| * returns 0 on success. */ |
| int svarlang_load(const char *progname, const char *lang, const char *nlspath); |
| |
| /* same as svarlang_load(), but relies on getenv() to pull LANG and NLSPATH. */ |
| int svarlang_autoload(const char *progname); |
| |
| /* Returns a pointer to the string "id". Does not require svalang_load() to be |
| * executed, but then it will only return the reference language strings. |
| * a string id is the concatenation of the CATS-style identifiers, for example |
| * string 1,0 becomes 0x0100, string 2.10 is 0x020A, etc. */ |
| const char *svarlang_strid(unsigned short id); |
| |
| /* a convenience definition to fetch strings by their CATS-style pairs instead |
| * of the 16-bit id. */ |
| #define svarlang_str(x, y) svarlang_strid((x << 8) | y) |
| |
| |
| ### ENVIRONMENT ### |
| |
| All translations files should be placed in the %NLSPATH% directory and should |
| be named the same as the program's name, with the LNG extension (for example |
| "INSTALL.LNG" if the program is named "INSTALL"). |
| |
| The %LANG% environment variable defines what language should be loaded. |
| |
| |
| ### WHY IS IT BETTER THAN CATS? ### |
| |
| The CATS library is heavier and slower, as it embeds a text-file parser. |
| Translations also take more disk space since each file is in a separate file |
| leading to cluster waste. Finally, CATS requires default strings to be part of |
| the application's source code, while SvarLANG keeps all strings in TXT files |
| and embedds the default one inside the application in an automated way at |
| compile time. |
| |
| |
| ======================================================================= EOF === |