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+ + +
+We would like to conclude this GNU gettext 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.
+
+
gettext
+Internationalization concerns and algorithms have been informally
+and casually discussed for years in GNU, sometimes around GNU
+libc, maybe around the incoming Hurd, or otherwise
+(nobody clearly remembers). And even then, when the work started for
+real, this was somewhat independently of these previous discussions.
+
+
+This all began in July 1994, when Patrick D'Cruze had the idea and
+initiative of internationalizing version 3.9.2 of GNU fileutils.
+He then asked Jim Meyering, the maintainer, how to get those changes
+folded into an official release. That first draft was full of
+#ifdefs 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 glocale, at that time.
+
+
+Jim implemented glocale and got a lot of exhausting feedback
+from Patrick and Richard, of course, but also from Mitchum DSouza
+(who wrote a catgets-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, glocale was torn apart.
+
+
+While Jim took some distance and time and became dad for a second
+time, Roland wanted to get GNU libc internationalized, and
+got Ulrich Drepper involved in that project. Instead of starting
+from glocale, Ulrich rewrote something from scratch, but
+more conformant to the set of guidelines who emerged out of the
+glocale effort. Then, Ulrich got people from the previous
+forum to involve themselves into this new project, and the switch
+from glocale to what was first named msgutils, renamed
+nlsutils, and later gettext, became officially accepted
+by Richard in May 1995 or so.
+
+
+Let's summarize by saying that Ulrich Drepper wrote GNU gettext
+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 THANKS file which comes with the GNU gettext
+distribution.
+
+
+While this was being done, Fran@,{c}ois adapted half a dozen of
+GNU packages to glocale first, then later to gettext,
+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.
+
+
+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 gettext Texinfo manual.
+
+
+Eugene H. Dorr (`dorre@well.com') maintains an interesting +bibliography on internationalization matters, called +Internationalization Reference List, which is available as: + +
+ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/doc/i18n-books.txt ++ +
+Michael Gschwind (`mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at') maintains a +Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, entitled Programming for +Internationalisation. 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 `comp.unix.questions', `comp.std.internat', +`comp.software.international', `comp.lang.c', +`comp.windows.x', `comp.std.c', `comp.answers' +and `news.answers'. The home location of this document is: + +
+ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit/ISO-programming ++ +
+Patrick D'Cruze (`pdcruze@li.org') wrote a tutorial about NLS +matters, and Jochen Hein (`Hein@student.tu-clausthal.de') took +over the responsibility of maintaining it. It may be found as: + +
+ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/nls/catalogs/Incoming/... + ...locale-tutorial-0.8.txt.gz ++ +
+This site is mirrored in: + +
+ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ ++ +
+A French version of the same tutorial should be findable at: + +
+ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/french/docs/ ++ +
+together with French translations of many Linux-related documents. + +
++
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