I want to make a forum in Interlingua - what do I do?

[Laurentio]

Hi, I'm new, both to this forum and the phpbb software.

I want to start a forum for speakers of an auxiliary language called Interlingua, and I would like all the text in the forum to be in Interlingua. (Text like "post new topic", "view private messages", etc.. etc - if possible even the terms that people agree to in order to use the forum.)

So how do I do that?

Is it realistic that I apply to become an official translator? I mean would they be interested in having an official version of Phpbb in such a small and obscure language, and in having a person with little knowledge about Phpbb as a translator?

I have a hunch that the answer to these questions is 'no!', so I would greatly appreciate some pointers on how to make the translations myself. Or maybe there's a guide somewhere that could get me started? (I have googled but keep getting back to the page about applying to become an official translator.)

Cheers!

[ameeck]

Hi,

in the first place, we welcome any translations, no matter how wide the target audience is. We do however accept only complete translations, including the front-end (what the users see) and the Administration Control Panel.

Here's my tip for you to get started:
On your PC, take the language/en/ folder, or its contents and copy them to language/ia/

You should have a set of files in that folder plus three other folders - acp/, mods/ and email/

In everyone of those files you will have quite a lot of text to translate.

Saving the file correctly is important: Save it in utf8 without BOM, do not have anything before <?php at the beginning of the file. See the wiki article about text editors, if you would like help with choosing one.

And one tip at the end: After you copy the files, first edit the iso.txt file and put in the values applicable for Interlingua, then go to ACP->System->Language packs and install the pack. Choose it as your language in your profile, so you can see how your translation is being completing and so you know in what context the text in the file appears.

[Laurentio]

Thanks, Ameeck! Much appreciated.

One thing: The page about text editors you linked showed up empty, but I found it with Google. Apparently the 'e' in 'editors' has to be in caps (http://wiki.phpbb.com/Text_Editors).

I'll play around a bit with translating and will probably be back with more questions.

Cheers.

[Laurentio]

Now I've installed Notepad++ and have been browsing around in the language files - wow, there's a lot of text.

A couple of more questions:

1. Exactly what text should I translate? I'm guessing only the text in '---' after an => ?

2. I read in another thread that if I don't have to translate the files in the acp and mods folders, if I only want what the user sees to be in interlingua, and not necessarily what the admins/moderators see. Have I understood this correctly?

3. Are the terms of use also included in one of these files, and am I allowed to translate them as well?

4. Finally I noticed this bit in most of the php-files:

Placeholders can now contain order information, e.g. instead of
// 'Page %s of %s' you can (and should) write 'Page %1$s of %2$s', this allows
// translators to re-order the output of data while ensuring it remains correct

I'm not entirely sure what this means but is it something I should be concerned about? (I mean, will my translating some data cause it to be re-ordered, maybe because it is listed alphabetically or something...?)

[ameeck]

1. Yes, translate everything in apostrophes, the upper case language keys need to be left as is.
2. The acp/ directory contains the translation for the administration, users don't see it. If you are fine with English as an admin, start with the user front-end. However in order to be listed in the language packs section here, you need to translate both parts.
3. Yes, you can translate the terms, actually you should. They are located at the beginning of ucp.php
4. There are some strings that have values inserted in them. For example:
   The system found %d topics in this forum. will become The system found 55 topics in this forum.
   Sometimes there are more placeholders in the string. You can reorder them as you want, as long as you keep the numbers in them. For example:
   In forum %$1d I found %$2d topics.
   changed to
   Found %$2d topics in forum %$1d.

[Laurentio]

OK, thanks for the reply!

[Laurentio]

Oh, one more thing. In Notepad++ when you set it to use UTF8 without BOM, a checkbox appears asking you if it should "Apply while open ANSI file". Should I check this box?

[ameeck]

No, leave the setting as is.

[Laurentio]

Thanks again, Ameeck!

Can it mess up the code if I use brackets in the translated text? Sometimes I've put the original English word in brackets, but then I noticed that Notepad++ seemed to regard this as some kind of coding sign.

Now I remember that I think I read somewhere that you had to put certain signs in quotes or something? Please, could you/someone refresh my memory as to what signs should be treated this way and exactly what I should do to them?

Cheers

[ameeck]

Sure, the only character you should be worried about is an apostrophe, as it's a delimiter of the strings in the file.

A few examples:

Code: Select all

'LANGUAGE KEY' => 'The user can't post', // Wrong, unescaped apostrophe
'LANGUAGE KEY' => 'The user can't post', // Correct, escaped with a'backslash

'LANGUAGE KEY' => 'The user can\'t post' // Also wrong, missing comma at the end, it also sometimes happens
'LANGUAGE KEY2' => 'The users can\'t post',