NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Gettext

gettext is the GNU internationalization (i18n) library. It is commonly used for writing multilingual programs. The latest version is 0.16. Image File history File links Portal. ... GNU (pronounced ) is a free operating system consisting of a kernel, libraries, system utilities, compilers, and end-user applications. ... Internationalization and localization are means of adapting products such as publications or software for non-native environments, especially other nations and cultures. ...

Workflow

Programmer

Source code is first modified to use the GNU gettext calls. This is, for most programming languages, done by wrapping strings that the user will see in the gettext function. To save on typing time, and to reduce code clutter, this function is usually aliased to _, so that the C code Wikibooks has a book on the topic of C Programming The C programming language (often, just C) is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie for use on the Unix operating system. ...

gettext then uses the supplied strings as keys for looking up alternative translations, and will return the original string when no translation is available. This is in contrast to systems like catgets or the use of LoadString under Microsoft Windows where a programmatic ID (often an integer) is used. Microsoft Windows is a family of operating systems by Microsoft. ...

In addition to C, GNU gettext has the following implementations: C++, Objective-C, sh script, bash script, Python, GNU CLISP, Emacs Lisp, librep, GNU Smalltalk, Java, GNU awk, Pascal, wxWidgets (through the wxLocale class), YCP (the YaST2 language), Tcl, Perl, PHP, Pike, and R. Usage is similar to C for most of these. C++ (generally pronounced ) is a general-purpose, high-level programming language with low-level facilities. ... Objective-C, often referred to as ObjC or more seldomly as Objective C or Obj-C, is an object oriented programming language implemented as an extension to C. It is used primarily on Mac OS X and GNUstep, two environments based on the OpenStep standard, and is the primary language... The Bourne shell, or sh, was the default Unix shell of Unix Version 7, and replaced the Thompson shell, whose executable file had the same name, sh. ... bash is a Unix shell written for the GNU Project. ... Python is an interpreted programming language created by Guido van Rossum in 1990. ... CLISP is a Common Lisp implementation. ... Emacs Lisp is a dialect of the Lisp programming language used by the GNU Emacs and XEmacs text editors (which we will collectively refer to as Emacs in this article. ... Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. ... Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ... AWK is a general purpose computer language that is designed for processing text-based data, either in files or data streams. ... Pascal is an imperative computer programming language, developed in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a language particularly suitable for structured programming. ... The correct title of this article is wxWidgets. ... YaST from SUSE 9. ... // Tcl (originally from Tool Command Language, but nonetheless conventionally rendered as Tcl rather than TCL; and pronounced like tickle) is a scripting language created by John Ousterhout. ... Perl, also Practical Extraction and Report Language (a backronym, see below) is a dynamic procedural programming language designed by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. ... PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a reflective programming language originally designed for producing dynamic Web pages. ... Pike is a general-purpose, high-level, dynamic programming language, with a syntax similar to that of C. Unlike many other dynamic languages, pike is statically typed, and requires explicit type definitions. ... The R programming language, sometimes described as GNU S, is a programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. ...

xgettext is run on the sources to produce a .pot file, or template, which contains a list of all the translatable strings extracted from the sources. For the above, an entry in the .pot file would look like:

Comments for translators

If the developer wants to give the translator a hint for a specific string, he can do it in the source with a TAG. This TAG is for xgettext to filter those hints and put them in the pot-file. The hints were displayed by Kbabel and Poedit.

In this example the TAG is // and has to be given to xgettext when building the .pot template file to be able to extract the comments for the translators. This TAG can be every other char as well, as long as you use it consistently in all your source.

Translator

The translator derives a .po file from the template using the msginit program, then fills out the translations. msginit initializes the translations so, for instance, if we wish to create a French language translation, we'd run

The translator will have to edit these, either by hand or with a translation tool like poEdit. When they are done, the entry will look like this: poEdit is a cross-platform gettext catalog editor to aid in the process of internationalization and localization. ...

Finally, the .po files are compiled into binary .mo files with msgfmt. These are now ready for distribution with the software package.

User

The user, on Unix-type systems, sets the environment variable LANG, and the program will display strings in the selected language, if there is a .mo file for it. Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... Environment variables are a set of dynamic values that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. ...

External links

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GNU Project • GNU Operating System

History: GNU Manifesto • GNU Project • Free Software Foundation (FSF) processing Autoconf is a tool for producing shell scripts that automatically configure software source code packages to adapt to many kinds of UNIX-like systems. ... Automake is a programming tool that produces portable makefiles for use by the make program, used in compiling software. ... GNU Libtool is a GNU programming tool from the GNU build system used for creating portable software libraries. ... The GNU logo, drawn by Etienne Suvasa The GNU Project was announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman. ... GNU (pronounced ) is a free operating system consisting of a kernel, libraries, system utilities, compilers, and end-user applications. ... The GNU Manifesto was written by Richard Stallman at the beginning of the GNU Project, to ask for participation and support. ... The GNU logo, drawn by Etienne Suvasa The GNU Project was announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman. ... The Free Software Foundation logo The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organization founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project. ...

GNU Licenses: GNU General Public License (GPL) • GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) • GNU Free Documentation License (FDL) The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... GNU logo The GNU Lesser General Public License (formerly the GNU Library General Public License) is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation. ... GNU logo (similar in appearance to a gnu) The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free content, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU project. ...

Core System: GNU Operating System • bash • coreutils • cpio • diffutils • findutils • finger • grep • GNU GRUB • gzip • hurd • inetutils • plotutils • readline • screen • tar • Time (Unix) GNU (pronounced ) is a free operating system consisting of a kernel, libraries, system utilities, compilers, and end-user applications. ... bash is a Unix shell written for the GNU Project. ... The GNU Core Utilities or coreutils is a package of GNU software containing many of the basic tools such as cat, ls, and rm needed for Unix-like operating systems. ... CPIO is both the name of a binary utility, and a form of digital archive. ... In computer networking, the Name/Finger protocol and the Finger user information protocol are simple network protocols for the exchange of human-oriented status and user information. ... grep is a command line utility originally written for use with the Unix operating system. ... GNU GRUB (GRUB for short) is a multiboot boot-loader software package from the GNU project. ... gzip is short for GNU zip, a GNU free software replacement for the Unix compress program. ... GNU Hurd logo Hurd redirects here. ... GNU readline is a software library created and maintained by the GNU project. ... GNU Screen is a Free Software terminal multiplexer developed by the GNU Project. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article is about a Unix command. ...

Documentation and Text Formatting: fontutils • Ghostscript ( Ghostview • gv • mgv • GSView ) • groff • texinfo Ghostscript is a suite of free software based on an interpreter of the Adobe PostScript and Portable Document Format (PDF) page description languages. ... Groff is the GNU replacement for the troff and nroff text formatters. ... GNU Texinfo is a free computer program for generating documentation in multiple formats from a single source file. ...

Development: GNU toolchain ( make • gcc • binutils • GDB • Autotools ) • glibc • pth • classpath • DotGNU • gettext • GNU m4 • bison • indent • GNU MDK • Binary File Descriptor • GNU Guile • FriBidi • MIT/GNU Scheme • SmartEiffel • CLISP • GNU Common Lisp The GNU toolchain is a blanket term given to the programming tools produced by the GNU project. ... In computer programming, make is a utility for automatically building large applications. ... The GNU Compiler Collection (usually shortened to GCC) is a set of programming language compilers produced by the GNU Project. ... The GNU Binutils is a collection of programming tools for the manipulation of object code in various object file formats. ... The GNU Debugger, usually called just GDB, is the standard debugger for the GNU software system. ... The GNU build system is a suite of tools produced by the GNU project that assist in making packages portable to many UNIX-like systems. ... Glibc is the GNU projects C standard library. ... GNU Pth (Portable Threads) is a POSIX/ANSI-C based thread library which provides priority-based scheduling for multithreading applications. ... Demonstration of the GNU Classpath Swing GNU Classpath is a project aiming to create a free implementation of the standard class library for the Java programming language. ... The current version of the article or section reads like an advertisement. ... GNU m4 is the GNU version of the m4 macro preprocessor. ... GNU bison is a free parser generator computer program written for the GNU project, and available for virtually all common operating systems. ... indent is a Unix utility that reformats C and C++ code in a user-defined coding style. ... The GNU MDK (GNU MIX Development Kit) is a software package for developing, running and debugging programs written in MIXAL, an assembly-like language for programming a fictional computer called MIX. Both MIX and MIXAL were created by mathematician and computer scientist Donald Knuth in the first volume of his... The Binary File Descriptor library, most commonly seen as just BFD, is the GNU projects main mechanism for the portable manipulation of object files in a variety of formats. ... The GNU Guile logo GNU Guile (first released in 1993[1]) is an interpreter/virtual machine for the Scheme programming language and modularized extensions thereof (such as POSIX system call extensions or APL array functionality, packaged as a object[2] library (libguile) so that it can be embedded in other... MIT/GNU Scheme is a free software Scheme implementation. ... SmartEiffel is a free Eiffel compiler. ... CLISP is a Common Lisp implementation. ... GNU Common Lisp (GCL) is the GNU Projects Common Lisp compiler, and an evolutionary development of Kyoto Common Lisp. ...

Graphical desktop: GIMP • GTK+ • GNOME • GNUstep To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section can be improved by converting lengthy lists to text. ... Initially created for the raster graphics editor, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, the GIMP Toolkitâ€”abbreviated, and almost exclusively known, as GTK+â€”is one of the two most popular widget toolkits for the X Window System for creating graphical user interfaces. ... The GNOME project is an international effort to create an easy-to-use computing platform built entirely from free software. ... GNUstep is a free software implementation of NeXTs OpenStep Objective-C libraries (called frameworks), widget toolkit, and application development tools not only for Unix-like operating systems, but also for Microsoft Windows. ...

Applications: Alexandria • Anubis • Aspell • Bayonne • Emacs • GNU Parted • GNU PG • Wget • GNUnet • GNU Robots • GnuTLS • Gnash • Gnuzilla ( IceWeasel • IceDove ) • LilyPond • GNU arch • oleo • GNU Radio GNU Anubis is an outgoing mail processor. ... GNU Aspell, usually called just Aspell, is the standard spelling checker software for the GNU software system designed to replace Ispell. ... GNU Bayonne is a free telecommunications application server written primarily by David Sugar for the GNU project. ... This article is about the text editor. ... GNU Parted is a program for creating, destroying, resizing, checking, and copying partitions, and the file systems on them. ... The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG or GPG) is a free software replacement for the PGP suite of cryptographic software, released under the GNU General Public License. ... GNU Wget is a free software program that implements simple and powerful content retrieval from web servers and is part of the GNU project. ... GNUnet is a framework for decentralized, peer-to-peer networking. ... GNU Robots is a computer game for programmers. ... GnuTLS, the GNU Transport Layer Security Library, is a free software implementation of the SSL and TLS protocols. ... The Gnash Logo For the hockey team mascot, see Gnash (Nashville Predators) Gnash is a GNU project to create a free software player for movies in Shockwave Flash format. ... Gnuzilla is a free software derivation of the Mozilla Application Suite created by the GNU Project as an attempt to be entirely free software. ... IceWeasel is the name of two currently independent Mozilla Firefox rebranding projects. ... IceDove is the free software derivation of the Mozilla Thunderbird mail reader, along with IceWeasel and Gnuzilla. ... GNU LilyPond is a free software program for engraving sheet music. ... In computing, GNU arch is a software revision control system that is part of the GNU Project and licensed under the GNU General Public License. ... GNU Oleo is a lightweight spreadsheet software package. ... GNU Radio is a free software toolkit for learning about, building, and deploying Software Defined Radios. ...

Scientific software: Octave • GSL • GMP • PSPP • GDL • TeXmacs For other uses of the word octave see Octave (disambiguation) Octave is a free computer program for performing numerical computations, which is mostly compatible with MATLAB. It is part of the GNU project. ... Code using the library and the computed results In computing, GNU Scientific Library (or GSL) is a software library written in the C programming language for numerical calculations in applied mathematics and science. ... The GNU Multiple-Precision Library, also known as GMP, is a free library for arbitrary precision arithmetic, operating on signed integers, rational numbers, and floating point numbers. ... GNU PSPP is the name of a computer program used for performing statistical analysis on sampled data. ... GDL - GNU Data Language is a GNU free software package. ... TEXMACS on Fedora Core 2 GNU TEXMACS (alternatively, TeXmacs) is a free scientific word processor component of the GNU project, which was inspired by both TeX and GNU Emacs. ...

Advocates and Activists: Richard Stallman (RMS) • Hal Abelson • Robert J. Chassell • Prof. Masayuki Ida • Geoffery Knauth • Lawrence Lessig • Eben Moglen • Henri Poole • Peter Salus • Gerald Sussman • Len Tower Jr. Richard Matthew Stallman (nickname rms) (born March 16, 1953) is both an acclaimed software freedom activist and software developer. ... Hal Abelson // Harold (Hal) Abelson is the Class of 1922 Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the MIT, and a fellow of the IEEE. He holds an A.B. degree from Princeton University and a Ph. ... Robert (aka Bob) Chassell was one of the founding directors of Free Software Foundation (FSF) in 1985. ... Geoffery S. Knauth is on the board of directors of Free Software Foundation, he is a Senior Software Engineer at SFA, Inc[1]. He contributed to the GNU Objective-C Collection library and has a degree in Economics from Harvard University. ... Lawrence Lessig Lawrence Lessig (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic. ... Eben Moglen Eben Moglen is a professor of law and history of law at Columbia University, serves pro bono as General Counsel for the Free Software Foundation, and is the Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center. ... Henri Poole is a political campaign technologist and founder/director of CivicActions, co-founder of the AdvoKit project, serves on the Board of the Free Software Foundation and Affero, Inc. ... Peter H. Salus is a linguist, computer scientist, historian of technology, author and editor of books on computing. ... // Gerald Jay Sussman is the Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). ... Leonard (Len) H. Tower Jr. ...

Software Developers: Richard Stallman (RMS) • Jonathan Arcenaux • Miles Bader • Jim Blandy • Michael (now Thomas) Bushnell • Ulrich Drepper • Brian Fox • Noah Friedman • Mike Haertel • Daniel Hagerty • Noboyuki Hikichi • Tom Lord • Roland McGrath • Ian Murdock • Phil Nelson • Ariel Rios • Paul Rubin • Randy Smith • Pete TerMaat • Len Tower Jr. Richard Matthew Stallman (nickname rms) (born March 16, 1953) is both an acclaimed software freedom activist and software developer. ... Thomas Bushnell is a Gregorian friar, formerly living in Massachusetts and now in southern California. ... Ulrich Drepper is the lead contributer and maintainer of the GNUs C standard library project, Glibc. ... Brian Fox is a free software programmer. ... Tom Lord is a free software developer, best known as the author of GNU arch. ... Ian Murdock is the founder of the Debian project and the commercial Progeny Debian distribution. ... Leonard (Len) H. Tower Jr. ...

Software Documentors: Richard Stallman (RMS) • Robert J. Chassell • Mieko Hikichi • Roland McGrath • Melissa Weisshaus Richard Matthew Stallman (nickname rms) (born March 16, 1953) is both an acclaimed software freedom activist and software developer. ... Robert (aka Bob) Chassell was one of the founding directors of Free Software Foundation (FSF) in 1985. ...

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