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<TITLE>GNU gettext utilities - Concluding Remarks</TITLE>
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<H1><A NAME="SEC78" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC78">Concluding Remarks</A></H1>

<P>
We would like to conclude this GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> manual by presenting
an history of the Translation Project so far.  We finally give
a few pointers for those who want to do further research or readings
about Native Language Support matters.

</P>


<H2><A NAME="SEC79" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC79">History of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE></A></H2>

<P>
Internationalization concerns and algorithms have been informally
and casually discussed for years in GNU, sometimes around GNU
<CODE>libc</CODE>, maybe around the incoming <CODE>Hurd</CODE>, or otherwise
(nobody clearly remembers).  And even then, when the work started for
real, this was somewhat independently of these previous discussions.

</P>
<P>
This all began in July 1994, when Patrick D'Cruze had the idea and
initiative of internationalizing version 3.9.2 of GNU <CODE>fileutils</CODE>.
He then asked Jim Meyering, the maintainer, how to get those changes
folded into an official release.  That first draft was full of
<CODE>#ifdef</CODE>s and somewhat disconcerting, and Jim wanted to find
nicer ways.  Patrick and Jim shared some tries and experimentations
in this area.  Then, feeling that this might eventually have a deeper
impact on GNU, Jim wanted to know what standards were, and contacted
Richard Stallman, who very quickly and verbally described an overall
design for what was meant to become <CODE>glocale</CODE>, at that time.

</P>
<P>
Jim implemented <CODE>glocale</CODE> and got a lot of exhausting feedback
from Patrick and Richard, of course, but also from Mitchum DSouza
(who wrote a <CODE>catgets</CODE>-like package), Roland McGrath, maybe David
MacKenzie, Fran@,{c}ois Pinard, and Paul Eggert, all pushing and
pulling in various directions, not always compatible, to the extent
that after a couple of test releases, <CODE>glocale</CODE> was torn apart.

</P>
<P>
While Jim took some distance and time and became dad for a second
time, Roland wanted to get GNU <CODE>libc</CODE> internationalized, and
got Ulrich Drepper involved in that project.  Instead of starting
from <CODE>glocale</CODE>, Ulrich rewrote something from scratch, but
more conformant to the set of guidelines who emerged out of the
<CODE>glocale</CODE> effort.  Then, Ulrich got people from the previous
forum to involve themselves into this new project, and the switch
from <CODE>glocale</CODE> to what was first named <CODE>msgutils</CODE>, renamed
<CODE>nlsutils</CODE>, and later <CODE>gettext</CODE>, became officially accepted
by Richard in May 1995 or so.

</P>
<P>
Let's summarize by saying that Ulrich Drepper wrote GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
in April 1995.  The first official release of the package, including
PO mode, occurred in July 1995, and was numbered 0.7.  Other people
contributed to the effort by providing a discussion forum around
Ulrich, writing little pieces of code, or testing.  These are quoted
in the <CODE>THANKS</CODE> file which comes with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
distribution.

</P>
<P>
While this was being done, Fran@,{c}ois adapted half a dozen of
GNU packages to <CODE>glocale</CODE> first, then later to <CODE>gettext</CODE>,
putting them in pretest, so providing along the way an effective
user environment for fine tuning the evolving tools.  He also took
the responsibility of organizing and coordinating the Translation
Project.  After nearly a year of informal exchanges between people from
many countries, translator teams started to exist in May 1995, through
the creation and support by Patrick D'Cruze of twenty unmoderated
mailing lists for that many native languages, and two moderated
lists: one for reaching all teams at once, the other for reaching
all willing maintainers of internationalized free software packages.

</P>
<P>
Fran@,{c}ois also wrote PO mode in June 1995 with the collaboration
of Greg McGary, as a kind of contribution to Ulrich's package.
He also gave a hand with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> Texinfo manual.

</P>


<H2><A NAME="SEC80" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC80">Related Readings</A></H2>

<P>
Eugene H. Dorr (<TT>`dorre@well.com'</TT>) maintains an interesting
bibliography on internationalization matters, called
<CITE>Internationalization Reference List</CITE>, which is available as:

<PRE>
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/doc/i18n-books.txt
</PRE>

<P>
Michael Gschwind (<TT>`mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at'</TT>) maintains a
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, entitled <CITE>Programming for
Internationalisation</CITE>.  This FAQ discusses writing programs which
can handle different language conventions, character sets, etc.;
and is applicable to all character set encodings, with particular
emphasis on ISO 8859-1.  It is regularly published in Usenet
groups <TT>`comp.unix.questions'</TT>, <TT>`comp.std.internat'</TT>,
<TT>`comp.software.international'</TT>, <TT>`comp.lang.c'</TT>,
<TT>`comp.windows.x'</TT>, <TT>`comp.std.c'</TT>, <TT>`comp.answers'</TT>
and <TT>`news.answers'</TT>.  The home location of this document is:

<PRE>
ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit/ISO-programming
</PRE>

<P>
Patrick D'Cruze (<TT>`pdcruze@li.org'</TT>) wrote a tutorial about NLS
matters, and Jochen Hein (<TT>`Hein@student.tu-clausthal.de'</TT>) took
over the responsibility of maintaining it.  It may be found as:

<PRE>
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/nls/catalogs/Incoming/...
     ...locale-tutorial-0.8.txt.gz
</PRE>

<P>
This site is mirrored in:

<PRE>
ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/
</PRE>

<P>
A French version of the same tutorial should be findable at:

<PRE>
ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/french/docs/
</PRE>

<P>
together with French translations of many Linux-related documents.

</P>
<P><HR><P>
<p>Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_10.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_12.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_12.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
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Commit	Line	Data
f6bcfd97 BP	1	<HTML>
	2	<HEAD>
	3	<!-- This HTML file has been created by texi2html 1.54
	4	from gettext.texi on 25 January 1999 -->
	5
	6	<TITLE>GNU gettext utilities - Concluding Remarks</TITLE>
	7	<link href="gettext_12.html" rel=Next>
	8	<link href="gettext_10.html" rel=Previous>
	9	<link href="gettext_toc.html" rel=ToC>
	10
	11	</HEAD>
	12	<BODY>
	13	<p>Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_10.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_12.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_12.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
	14	<P><HR><P>
	15
	16
	17	<H1><A NAME="SEC78" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC78">Concluding Remarks</A></H1>
	18
	19	<P>
	20	We would like to conclude this GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> manual by presenting
	21	an history of the Translation Project so far. We finally give
	22	a few pointers for those who want to do further research or readings
	23	about Native Language Support matters.
	24
	25	</P>
	26
	27
	28
	29	<H2><A NAME="SEC79" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC79">History of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE></A></H2>
	30
	31	<P>
	32	Internationalization concerns and algorithms have been informally
	33	and casually discussed for years in GNU, sometimes around GNU
	34	<CODE>libc</CODE>, maybe around the incoming <CODE>Hurd</CODE>, or otherwise
	35	(nobody clearly remembers). And even then, when the work started for
	36	real, this was somewhat independently of these previous discussions.
	37
	38	</P>
	39	<P>
	40	This all began in July 1994, when Patrick D'Cruze had the idea and
	41	initiative of internationalizing version 3.9.2 of GNU <CODE>fileutils</CODE>.
	42	He then asked Jim Meyering, the maintainer, how to get those changes
	43	folded into an official release. That first draft was full of
	44	<CODE>#ifdef</CODE>s and somewhat disconcerting, and Jim wanted to find
	45	nicer ways. Patrick and Jim shared some tries and experimentations
	46	in this area. Then, feeling that this might eventually have a deeper
	47	impact on GNU, Jim wanted to know what standards were, and contacted
	48	Richard Stallman, who very quickly and verbally described an overall
	49	design for what was meant to become <CODE>glocale</CODE>, at that time.
	50
	51	</P>
	52	<P>
	53	Jim implemented <CODE>glocale</CODE> and got a lot of exhausting feedback
	54	from Patrick and Richard, of course, but also from Mitchum DSouza
	55	(who wrote a <CODE>catgets</CODE>-like package), Roland McGrath, maybe David
	56	MacKenzie, Fran@,{c}ois Pinard, and Paul Eggert, all pushing and
	57	pulling in various directions, not always compatible, to the extent
	58	that after a couple of test releases, <CODE>glocale</CODE> was torn apart.
	59
	60	</P>
	61	<P>
	62	While Jim took some distance and time and became dad for a second
	63	time, Roland wanted to get GNU <CODE>libc</CODE> internationalized, and
	64	got Ulrich Drepper involved in that project. Instead of starting
65	from <CODE>glocale</CODE>, Ulrich rewrote something from scratch, but
66	more conformant to the set of guidelines who emerged out of the
67	<CODE>glocale</CODE> effort. Then, Ulrich got people from the previous
68	forum to involve themselves into this new project, and the switch
69	from <CODE>glocale</CODE> to what was first named <CODE>msgutils</CODE>, renamed
70	<CODE>nlsutils</CODE>, and later <CODE>gettext</CODE>, became officially accepted
71	by Richard in May 1995 or so.
72
73	</P>
74	<P>
75	Let's summarize by saying that Ulrich Drepper wrote GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
76	in April 1995. The first official release of the package, including
77	PO mode, occurred in July 1995, and was numbered 0.7. Other people
78	contributed to the effort by providing a discussion forum around
79	Ulrich, writing little pieces of code, or testing. These are quoted
80	in the <CODE>THANKS</CODE> file which comes with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
81	distribution.
82
83	</P>
84	<P>
85	While this was being done, Fran@,{c}ois adapted half a dozen of
86	GNU packages to <CODE>glocale</CODE> first, then later to <CODE>gettext</CODE>,
87	putting them in pretest, so providing along the way an effective
88	user environment for fine tuning the evolving tools. He also took
89	the responsibility of organizing and coordinating the Translation
90	Project. After nearly a year of informal exchanges between people from
91	many countries, translator teams started to exist in May 1995, through
92	the creation and support by Patrick D'Cruze of twenty unmoderated
93	mailing lists for that many native languages, and two moderated
94	lists: one for reaching all teams at once, the other for reaching
95	all willing maintainers of internationalized free software packages.
96
97	</P>
98	<P>
99	Fran@,{c}ois also wrote PO mode in June 1995 with the collaboration
100	of Greg McGary, as a kind of contribution to Ulrich's package.
101	He also gave a hand with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> Texinfo manual.
102
103	</P>
104
105
106	<H2><A NAME="SEC80" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC80">Related Readings</A></H2>
107
108	<P>
109	Eugene H. Dorr (<TT>`dorre@well.com'</TT>) maintains an interesting
110	bibliography on internationalization matters, called
111	<CITE>Internationalization Reference List</CITE>, which is available as:
112
113	<PRE>
114	ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/doc/i18n-books.txt
115	</PRE>
116
117	<P>
118	Michael Gschwind (<TT>`mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at'</TT>) maintains a
119	Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, entitled <CITE>Programming for
120	Internationalisation</CITE>. This FAQ discusses writing programs which
121	can handle different language conventions, character sets, etc.;
122	and is applicable to all character set encodings, with particular
123	emphasis on ISO 8859-1. It is regularly published in Usenet
124	groups <TT>`comp.unix.questions'</TT>, <TT>`comp.std.internat'</TT>,
125	<TT>`comp.software.international'</TT>, <TT>`comp.lang.c'</TT>,
126	<TT>`comp.windows.x'</TT>, <TT>`comp.std.c'</TT>, <TT>`comp.answers'</TT>
127	and <TT>`news.answers'</TT>. The home location of this document is:
128
129	<PRE>
130	ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit/ISO-programming
131	</PRE>
132
133	<P>
134	Patrick D'Cruze (<TT>`pdcruze@li.org'</TT>) wrote a tutorial about NLS
135	matters, and Jochen Hein (<TT>`Hein@student.tu-clausthal.de'</TT>) took
136	over the responsibility of maintaining it. It may be found as:
137
138	<PRE>
139	ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/nls/catalogs/Incoming/...
140	...locale-tutorial-0.8.txt.gz
141	</PRE>
142
143	<P>
144	This site is mirrored in:
145
146	<PRE>
147	ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/
148	</PRE>
149
150	<P>
151	A French version of the same tutorial should be findable at:
152
153	<PRE>
154	ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/french/docs/
155	</PRE>
156
157	<P>
158	together with French translations of many Linux-related documents.
159
160	</P>
161	<P><HR><P>
162	<p>Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_10.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_12.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_12.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
163	</BODY>
164	</HTML>