docs/html/gettext/gettext_11.html

   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>