git.saurik.com Git - wxWidgets.git/blame_incremental - docs/html/gettext/gettext

... / ...

Commit	Line	Data
	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>