MUI-ASL locale support files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This directory contains the catalog description (.cd) files you need to
localize MUI-ASL in your preferred language. Of course you'll also need
CatComp, or other similar tools, to generate the .catalog files.

Please read all of this file before starting a translation.

Multi-language catalog description files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You will see that the catalog description files also contain the translated
strings. The translated strings follow the corresponding English string;
they are hidden in comment lines (lines starting with a semicolon) so that
the .cd file does still conform to the format required by CatComp.

The language of each string is identified by a two letter abbreviation just
after the semicolon, as in the following example:

   MSG_EXAMPLE (42//)
   english
   ;de:deutsch
   ;es:español
   ;fr:français
   ;it:italiano
   ;no:norsk
   ;se:svenska
   ;

Strings without a translation in a certain language use the same string as
English: for example, "Overscan" is the same in almost all languages, so we
need to rewrite it only for those languages in which it differs:

  MSG_OVERSCAN (1001//)
  _Overscan:
  ;de:_Randbereich:
  ;fr:_Suraffich.:

...and my tools will use "_Overscan:" for Italian, Spanish, and so on.


How to translate MUI-ASL into your language
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want to write the translation for a new language, please don't mess
with the catalog descriptions yourself. Particularly, do *not* write your
translation in place of the English strings: this is not a .ct file.

First, you need an empty .ct file to write your translation in. Create one
with the following command:

   CatComp MUI-ASL_locale.cd CTFILE=MUI-ASL_klingon.ct

Then, fill in MUI-ASL_klingon.ct (you should of course know Klingon).

Then, check if the .ct can compile with the following command:

   CatComp MUI-ASL_locale.cd TRANSLATION=MUI-ASL_klingon.ct
     CATALOG=LOCALE:Catalogs/klingon/MUI-ASL.catalog

  (write the above command all on one single line)

After you have successfully compiled the .catalog file, use it for a while
and see if all the strings fit well; don't make any string too long or too
short, otherwise the requester layout might be compromised.

Finally, send me your .ct file, and I will integrate it into the .cd file.
Don't try to join the two files by hand: I have tools to do that, so it'll
take much less time than you doing it by hand, and it won't make mistakes.

If you think that some translation for your language is wrong, just change
the string in the .cd file and send it back to me. If you change just one
or two strings, don't bother changing the .cd files: just tell me which
strings you want changed.


Additional notes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 * The strings used by MUI-ASL are obviously very similar to the original
   ASL, and in part to the Workbench. In fact they are so similar that I
   grabbed the ASL and Workbench catalogs for various languages and copied
   the strings for MUI-ASL.

   Please try to copy original ASL and Workbench strings for your own
   language whenever possible: this will avoid confusing end users.

 * If you use one of the supplied catalogs, please look for strings that
   contain '???': it means they are not translated or were translated by
   myself by cutting'n'pasting similar strings.

 * Even without knowing all these languages, I could spot some errors in
   the original ASL catalogs and I tried to correct them, but chances that
   I got it right are pretty low. So, please report any errors you see.

 * You will probably see some duplicate or inappropriate shortcuts. Again,
   I tried to catch errors, but I didn't use all the catalogs long enough
   to spot all of them.

Oh, and one last thing: maybe you want to translate the Installer script,
or maybe the whole documentation? Well, the script is there, just translate
the strings and send them to me; for the documentation, ask me for the
Texinfo source (of course you should know how to use Texinfo).

Ciao,
  Flavio