Translating Possibilities

[Peamur]

Hello,

I searched but found nothing relevant to my question.
The question is:
I assume, that Pandora comes in German or English (Language of the OS). Is it possible to translate the environment into other languages? (I want to do a presentation and would like to show Pandora with other languages).
Are there special language settings or language files to edit? Or should the language be integrated into the build?

I'll receive my Pandora in next days (has been sent).
Thank you.

 

[ivanovic]

The pandora comes in "English only". The problem is that translations require quite some space on the NAND and there is not too much available. In theory it would be possible to get lots of stuff translated though. What you can sometimes get with translations are the programs shipped in pnds. Eg in Wesnoth you can switch to other languages and for Frogatto a language selection tool is included, too. Though this always depends on the packagers (as well as the ported programs) and what they package in which way. I'd assume that almost everything is shipped in "English only" mode.

 

[skeezix]

Adding to that -- most of the OS is language-changable, just the English is the only stuff included; it would certainly be possible to build the firmware with another language set, or do hard work along those lines. The software is all multi-language capable.

jeff

 

[CPUnltd]

what about language PNDs? Can something be wrapped up with a dialog box or scripted instruction set to allow one to change the language via the PND with included language files (maybe one language per PND, to keep size down)? Then one could just save the PND to nand, run the included "executable" and change the lang to their preference... Sounds simple, in theory, but I'm not sure how large .po files can get for individual languages...

 

[fusion_power]

The pandora comes in "English only". The problem is that translations require quite some space on the NAND and there is not too much available. In theory it would be possible to get lots of stuff translated though. What you can sometimes get with translations are the programs shipped in pnds. Eg in Wesnoth you can switch to other languages and for Frogatto a language selection tool is included, too. Though this always depends on the packagers (as well as the ported programs) and what they package in which way. I'd assume that almost everything is shipped in "English only" mode.

You can store an entire Novel in 1MB, so it actualy can't need that huge space for the OS in an other language. Maybe later it is possible to store only the desired language, so it doesn't need all language files be included. Maybe something like an optional PND update to choose the Language, at least for the OS.
But more important would be an included Helpfile, at the moment there is not much onto the Pandora that helps beginners. F1 usualy leads to nothing.

However, it is a good thing that some programms alreay come in Multi Language.

 

[Peamur]

Thanks to all. That sounds good.
I'll look into this matter when I have the console.

 

[Esn]

You can also change the keyboard to type in another script (i.e. Cyrillic). So that might be important, depending on which language you'll be making the presentation in.

 

[ivanovic]

The pandora comes in "English only". The problem is that translations require quite some space on the NAND and there is not too much available. In theory it would be possible to get lots of stuff translated though. What you can sometimes get with translations are the programs shipped in pnds. Eg in Wesnoth you can switch to other languages and for Frogatto a language selection tool is included, too. Though this always depends on the packagers (as well as the ported programs) and what they package in which way. I'd assume that almost everything is shipped in "English only" mode.

You can store an entire Novel in 1MB, so it actualy can't need that huge space for the OS in an other language. Maybe later it is possible to store only the desired language, so it doesn't need all language files be included. Maybe something like an optional PND update to choose the Language, at least for the OS.
But more important would be an included Helpfile, at the moment there is not much onto the Pandora that helps beginners. F1 usualy leads to nothing.

However, it is a good thing that some programms alreay come in Multi Language.

Just to give you a sample of "size required for translations": The german translation of Wesnoth 1.8.6 required 3.1MB. Assuming that the whole OS has by far less text (which is likely) maybe 2MB per lang to be installed would be sufficient. But which langs to install? And, even more important, *ARE* there actually translations packages available via the angstrom package repository? If angstrom does by default *not* build any translations this would required some (aka "lots of") extra work someone has to handle. A quick search in the angstrom (mainline) repo has not shown up any lang packs, so you would basically have to write those packaging rules to create them. Packaging rules or adjustements for *each* package shipped that does come with a translation. Do you volunteer to look into this? The only thing I can say is that you either have to find existing, correct ipk (recipes) or got a *lot* of work to do.

Short summary:
There is no "done in 5min and only uses close to zero space for all the langs"-solution. You'd first have to select the list of languages you want, then find/create the packages with the .mo files and then...

 

[fusion_power]

I thought that Angström has at least some basic stuff translated or is this an english project only? Of course there is alot to add of Pandora specific stuff but are there no basic language Files for Linux, more or less universal compatible?
Would be nice if we could add Language Packages via simple external pnd installation, without hacing everything straight into the Firmware itself. But I guess this will not happen soon. Well, my english is good enough to handle the Pandora. I just worry about beginners with less experience. If the Pandora want to reach a wider audience, translations and Help files sureley could help. ^^

 

[ivanovic]

I thought that Angström has at least some basic stuff translated or is this an english project only? Of course there is alot to add of Pandora specific stuff but are there no basic language Files for Linux, more or less universal compatible?
Would be nice if we could add Language Packages via simple external pnd installation, without hacing everything straight into the Firmware itself. But I guess this will not happen soon. Well, my english is good enough to handle the Pandora. I just worry about beginners with less experience. If the Pandora want to reach a wider audience, translations and Help files sureley could help. ^^

Angstrom is meant for small, embedded systems which usually come with "not much space available at all". So yeah, it might be that there are intentionally no translations in the recipes.

So this might be a perfect place for you to get involved. Find out if there are the translations somewhere included in angstrom. Talk to angstrom people in case that is not true and ask how to "activate" them (meaning "how do I have to modify the package creation rules").