Multilanguage Desktop Environment


Klumpen

Run away! Run away!
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Again someone on another board just asked for a translation of Pandoras desktop environment.

Will there be a possibility to choose a language for Pyras OS from the beginning?

Not every user understands English as well as people on these boards here.

Since most DEs (like my Mate) are translated already anyway, creating this option at startup shouldn't involve too much work, or does it?
 
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There are already some users running their Pandora XFCE in an other language.

As you have a full Debian it shouldn't be a problem to offer different languages from the start up.
 
Someone will need to have translated the Pyra specific utilities and menus to additional languages though - which is unlikely at day 1.
 
by "startup" I think Klumpen means that as soon as you boot the first time, you have a language select option so you dont have to navigate english menus in order to change the language.


This seems to me like a simple script. Just have a first-boot.sh and when it runs have it automatically run the language selector so the user doesnt need to do anything to open it themselves.
 
Well, translation into German wouldn't be an issue, however, I have no idea how apps work with different languages...

There are some language files, AFAIK, but does anyone know how exactly an app needs to be coded so that it works with standard Linux language settings?
 
Menu translations are included in the /usr/share/applications/*.desktop files.

$ cat /usr/share/applications/solfege.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=GNU Solfege
GenericName=Ear training
GenericName[de]=Gehörtraining
Exec=solfege
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=solfege
Categories=GTK;AudioVideo;Audio;Education;Music;
 
 
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I am in the process of rewriting some of my system utilities from scratch. While doing so, I make sure to keep full gettext support. For example, this is what a language file looks like:  https://github.com/slaeshjag/pandora-tools/blob/master/swaptools/po/swaptools.pot There are also more user friendly programs available for editing these.

This is then compiled into more compact binary files (the .po files.)

As long as the files for the language the enviroment is set up for is present, a program using gettext will automatically be using that translation.
 
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If the infrastructure is set up, I think we have enough people speaking French and German to get a translation for those pretty fast. I could help for German.
 
Sådan, folkens! Selvom jeg tror at jeg er mere eller minder den eneste, som kender det i hele Danmark.

Und kann blöderweise auch noch deutsch. And English as well. So I don't really need a Danish translation .—.
 
Und kann blöderweise auch noch deutsch.
Du armer.
Goethes Faust hatte es schwerer:

Faustus said:
Habe nun, ach! Philosophie,

Juristerei und Medizin,

Und leider auch Theologie

Durchaus studiert, mit heißem Bemühn.

Da steh' ich nun, ich armer Tor,

Und bin so klug als wie zuvor!
Wie auch immer, wir driften so'n bisschen vom Thema ab.
 
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