To the translator:

Item 1: Thank you for your help!
Item 2: If you want to update existing translation, please
        contact me, and I'll send you corresponding #?.ct file,
        as they are removed from the distribution.

db has the following types of text that need translation:

* The menus (you may use other, language-standard hotkeys if really needed)
* The menuhelp
* All warning and information requesters
* The windowtitles (in find and sort mode)
* (The .guide file is really optional. It changes often, but I won't stop you)

Here follows instructions on how to make a correct translation:

This directory has the file empty.ct (translation file) that you can fill with
text in your language. The corresponding English text can be found in the
commented line below each entry.

A .ct is easy to fill in. Here is a short sample of the swedish .ct file:

MSG_PROJECT_ABOUT
?\0Om...
; ?\0About...
;
MSG_PROJECT_QUIT
Q\0Avsluta
; Q\0Quit
;
MSG_EDIT_MENU
 \0Redigera
;  \0Edit
;
MSG_EDIT_CUT
X\0Klipp ut
; X\0Cut
;

The semicolon is used for comments. MSG_... are my internal definitions and must
not be changed. The sample above shows how I handle hotkeys for menus. First
comes the hotkey followed by a \0 to terminate that "string", then comes the
menutext. I Use a space for no hotkey at all. (This is the Commodore proposed
standard to handle hotkeys in Localization)

Long lines can be broken apart with a \ at the end like this:

MSG_LONG_LINE
Let's say that this is a very long line.\n\
This is the 2:nd line. That's all folks!
;

The Locale system knows how to handle all normal C conventions like:

\n - New line in a requester

%s - This is to insert external strings in the text, commonly filenames like in:
     "Can't open file 'foo' for writing.". In the .ct file it looks like this:
     Can't open file %s for writing. Make sure you don't forget the %s stuff.

%d - The same as above but for numbers.

To help you test for syntax errors in your translations and also to see if
some requesters got an ugly look (eg to long or wide, adjust with \n), you must
use the catalog creator like Commodore's CatComp (which is copyrighted, so I can't
distribute it but it can be found in the OS developement disks from Commodore)
or freeware FlexCat (available at http://wfmh.man.szczecin.pl/flexcat/ or
on any Aminet mirror), which is now more powerful than CatComp, so I advice to
use FlexCat.

FlexCat makes a .catalog file from your .ct file. The .catalog file shall be
named db.catalog and put in a directory with the same name as your language
spelled in your own language. For example: A german .catalog file shall have
the following path/filename:
Catalogs/Deutsch/db.catalog

To make db load your catalog file you have to select your language in
prefs/locale, but that you know already..

If you notice an error in your translation when you run db, you will have to
quit all db's running on your Amiga and then do AVAIL FLUSH to remove the
catalog file from memory (as the Amiga won't load a catalog from disk more
than once to save the time), or call FlexCat with FLUSH option (please
refer FlexCat's manual for more useful switches and tips).

FlexCat can be used this way to create a .catalog file:

   FlexCat db.cd db_deutsch.ct CATALOG /Catalogs/deutsch/db.catalog

FlexCat only uses the db.cd file for syntax control of your .ct file.

Many thanks for your work!

Regards

David Ekholm

/* text updated by Marcin Orlowski, Sat Sep 20 10:39:34 1997 */