GNU Info

Info Node: (gettext.info)Auxiliary

(gettext.info)Auxiliary


Next: Compendium Prev: C Sources Context Up: Updating
Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Consulting Auxiliary PO Files
=============================

   PO mode is able to help the knowledgeable translator, being fluent in
many languages, at taking advantage of translations already achieved in
other languages she just happens to know.  It provides these other
language translations as additional context for her own work.  Moreover,
it has features to ease the production of translations for many
languages at once, for translators preferring to work in this way.

   An "auxiliary" PO file is an existing PO file meant for the same
package the translator is working on, but targeted to a different mother
tongue language.  Commands exist for declaring and handling auxiliary
PO files, and also for showing contexts for the entry under work.

   Here are the auxiliary file commands available in PO mode.

`a'
     Seek auxiliary files for another translation for the same entry.

`M-a'
     Switch to a particular auxiliary file.

`A'
     Declare this PO file as an auxiliary file.

`M-A'
     Remove this PO file from the list of auxiliary files.

   Command `A' (`po-consider-as-auxiliary') adds the current PO file to
the list of auxiliary files, while command `M-A'
(`po-ignore-as-auxiliary' just removes it.

   The command `a' (`po-cycle-auxiliary') seeks all auxiliary PO files,
round-robin, searching for a translated entry in some other language
having an `msgid' field identical as the one for the current entry.
The found PO file, if any, takes the place of the current PO file in
the display (its window gets on top).  Before doing so, the current PO
file is also made into an auxiliary file, if not already.  So, `a' in
this newly displayed PO file will seek another PO file, and so on, so
repeating `a' will eventually yield back the original PO file.

   The command `M-a' (`po-select-auxiliary') asks the translator for
her choice of a particular auxiliary file, with completion, and then
switches to that selected PO file.  The command also checks if the
selected file has an `msgid' field identical as the one for the current
entry, and if yes, this entry becomes current.  Otherwise, the cursor
of the selected file is left undisturbed.

   For all this to work fully, auxiliary PO files will have to be
normalized, in that way that `msgid' fields should be written _exactly_
the same way.  It is possible to write `msgid' fields in various ways
for representing the same string, different writing would break the
proper behaviour of the auxiliary file commands of PO mode.  This is not
expected to be much a problem in practice, as most existing PO files
have their `msgid' entries written by the same GNU `gettext' tools.

   However, PO files initially created by PO mode itself, while marking
strings in source files, are normalised differently.  So are PO files
resulting of the the `M-x normalize' command.  Until these
discrepancies between PO mode and other GNU `gettext' tools get fully
resolved, the translator should stay aware of normalisation issues.


automatically generated by info2www version 1.2.2.9