pyfa/locale

Pyfa Internationalization(i18n) and Localization(l10n)

Below is a summary of GNU gettext manual, adapted for Pyfa i18n workflow.

Poedit offers a nice GUI for same GNU gettext translation workflow.

i18n with command line

Windows users can get these tools via Git for windows, Msys2 or Cygwin; or just use WSL / WSL2. For Linux and macOS users these tools might be available out-of-box.

To generate new template for translation:

$ find */ *.py -name "*.py" | xgettext -o locale/lang.pot -d lang -k_t -f -

explanation:

• find */ *.py -name "*.py": collect all .py file path in root folder and all sub-folder, write it to stdout
• xgettext: a utility looking for keyword and put string literals in a specific format for human translation
  • -o locale/lang.pot: let xgettext write to locale/lang.pot
  • -d lang: default language domain is lang
  • -k_t: besides default keyword (including _, see info xgettext for detail), also look for _t
  • -f -: let xgettext to read from stdin, which is connected to find stdout

this locale/lang.pot is called PO template, which is throwed away once actual ll_CC/LC_MESSAGES/lang.po is ready for use.

To initialize PO file for new language

$ msginit -i locale/lang.pot -l ll_CC -o locale/ll_CC/LC_MESSAGES/lang.po

explanation:

• -i locale/lang.pot: input file location
• -l ll_CC: target locale. ll should be a language code, and CC should be a country code
• -o locale/ll_CC/LC_MESSAGES/lang.po: output file
  • ll_CC: same as above
  • LC_MESSAGES: GNU gettext conventional path to search for localized messages
  • lang.po: language domain and file format

this locale/ll_CC/LC_MESSAGES/lang.po should be checked into VCS, later it will be converted into mechine readable format (MO).

To update PO file for existing translation

$ msgmerge locale/ll_CC/LC_MESSAGES/lang.po locale/lang.pot

To do actual translation

just edit the lang.po file :)

To generate machine readable MO file

For a single locale:

$ msgfmt locale/ll_CC/LC_MESSAGES/lang.po -o locale/ll_CC/LC_MESSAGES/lang.mo

For all available locale:

for f in locale/*/; do 
    msgfmt $f/LC_MESSAGES/lang.po -o $f/LC_MESSAGES/lang.mo
done

i18n with Poedit

To update PO file for existing translation

1. open a existing locale/ll_CC/LC_MESSAGES/lang.po
2. Catalog -> Update form POT file
3. select pre-prepared lang.pot file

To translate and generate MO file

edit the translation and hit Save :)