Translator how to

This page explains the translation process for hydrogen. If you want to translate the manual, skip the Gui translations part and continue reading at the end of this page.

Gui translations

The translations are made with a program called "linguist" which is part of QT development package (qt4-dev-tools on Ubuntu).

Steps needed to create a new translation (or update an old one..)

1) install linguist and svn

2) learn how to use linguist

3) get the hydrogen svn sources

4) translate your .ts file

5) build Hydrogen and see how the translated gui looks

6) fix issues

7) mail your final .ts file to the devel mailing list

8) enjoy the look of your name on the credits list :-)

In detail :

1) install Linguist and svn :

Linguist is a translation tool that is part of the QT development tools.

- ubuntu : install via software center (search for 'qt4 Linguist')

- debian based distro's : install via Synaptic (search for qt4-dev-tools) or type apt-get install qt4-dev-tools in a terminal

- other distro's : search your package manager for QT4 Linguist

SVN is a sourcecode management system that allows you to get code from the Hydrogen development server (and put code on it)

- ubuntu : install via software center (search for 'subversion')

- debian based distro's : install via Synaptic (search for 'subversion') or type apt-get install subversion in a terminal

- other distro's : search your package manager for subversion

2) learn how to use Linguist

The Linguist manual can be found here : general info : http://doc.qt.nokia.com/latest/linguist-manual.html

translator chapter :  http://doc.qt.nokia.com/latest/linguist-translators.html

3) get the latest SVN sourcecode

it's best to create a working directory somewhere (doesn't really matter where), open a terminal and cd into that directory example :

mkdir  /home/myname/workdir
cd /home/myname/workdir

now get the sourcecode :

svn co http://svn.assembla.com/svn/hydrogen/trunk hydrogen

This is a SVN 'checkout' that will create a directory called 'hydrogen' in the current dir and put all sourcecode in that directory (approx 13MB of files)

4) translate your .ts file

goto /home/myname/workdir/hydrogen/data/i18n, and run the updatescript :

cd /home/myname/workdir/hydrogen/data/i18n
./updateTranslations.sh

now open the .ts file in Linguist that you want to translate (hydrogen.it.ts for Italian, hydrogen.ru.ts for Russian ...) and start translating

5) build Hydrogen from source

When you are done with your translation, or you want to see the intermediate result of all your hard labour you will need to build Hydrogen from source. Dont worry ! It's not that difficult and remember that you can always ask questions on the devel mailing list (and you will get an answer quickly from the famous hyper-fast-responding-developers!)

You can find more info about building here (linux) :  http://trac.assembla.com/hydrogen/wiki/development:qt4compile and for mac here :  http://trac.assembla.com/hydrogen/wiki/development:compileOSX

6) fix issues

There is a chance that your translated strings are shorter or longer than the original English string. In some cases this can mess up the gui. If that is the case you should take a screenshot of the issue and mail it (+ an explanation of the problem) to the devel mailing list. Then we can see what the options are (change the text or the gui, or ...)

7) mail the .ts file

Once you are happy with the result of your work (all strings have been translated + the complete gui looks good) you can mail your .ts file to the devel list. The file will be checked in and your work will be added to the next build !

Gui Translations status (updated 2011/03/15)

hydrogen.cs.ts	515/719	71%
hydrogen.de.ts	502/719	69%
hydrogen.ca.ts	554/555	99%
hydrogen.fr.ts	682/719	94%
hydrogen.it.ts	481/719	66%
hydrogen.nl.ts	443/719	61%
hydrogen.pt_BR.ts	1/719	0%
hydrogen.sv.ts	1/719	0%
hydrogen.es.ts	696/719	96%
hydrogen.hu_HU.ts	1/719	0%
hydrogen.ja.ts	1/719	0%
hydrogen.pl.ts	363/719	50%
hydrogen.ru.ts	675/719	93%
hydrogen.hr.ts	513/719	71%

Gui Translators

TODO: update the table with current translators

	0.9.4 translators	0.9.5 translators
it	Alessandro Cominu & Journeyman
es	Daniel Tonda C & Daryl O'Hara	Chema Martin
ru	Alexandre Prokoudine	Alexandre Prokoudine
fr	Yan Morin
pt_BR	-
hu_HU	-
pl	-
nl	aikie & Pieter Van Isacker
ja	-
de	Simon Donike
sv	-
hr	Mario Kozjak

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Manual / Tutorial Translations

The manual has a new format since it was rewritten for the 0.9.4 release. We're using now a PO-based translation system which is based on the docbook xml files. You need xmlto, po2xml, xml2po, and the DocBook? XML DTD's if you want to make a translation. The tools can be found in the following debian packages: xmlto poxml docbook-xml libxml2-utils.

Steps needed:

(1) get the latest SVN sources

(2) cd data/doc

(3) Create a .po-file for your language (if it doesn't exist): $ cp manual_en.pot manual_it.po

(4) kbabel manual_it.po (replace "it" with your locale)

(5) translate all strings :)

(6) execute "make" to transform the docbook xml files into html

(7) email the *.po file to the hydrogen-devel mailing list.

See data/doc/README.DOCUMENTATION.txt for more info  http://svn.assembla.com/svn/hydrogen/trunk/data/doc/README.DOCUMENTATION.txt