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I won't present the Ubuntu Start project again, you can read all about it HERE. Since launching Ubuntu Start (also known as "What To Do After Installing Ubuntu 10.04 Script" =) ), a few people translated it into their native language. However there was a lot of work to be done on their side with every update I made because the script didn't support multiple languages so the strings had to be translated inside the script.


The story


Well, I had some time today so I implemented multiple language support to the Ubuntu Start script. It's not using .pot or .po files (although the language file is called .pot - never mind this) and the translations won't be made in Launchpad - I simply couldn't figure out how to set up the translations in Launchpad.

The language strings file is very easy: a plain text file with English phrases, that is all.


We need your help!


You can help us by translating the script into your language. Here is how to do it.

Get the source from Launchpad: http://launchpad.net/ubuntustart/0.4.x/0.4.9/+download/ubuntu-10.04-start-0.4.9.13.tar.gz

Then extract it and inside the archive you will find a folder called "languages" with a file called "en.pot". This is the file you can help translate. You basically have to translate each line.

Once you translate the file, you can mail it to me: andrew [at] webupd8 [dot] org. I will of course add a credits file for everybody helping out with the translation.


Things to have in mind when translating:
  • Do not alter the number of lines or the lines order. If you change the line order, everything will be messed up
  • Do not remove quotes ("), backslashes (\) or double backslashes followed by an "n" (\\n) - these are are required for the script. "\\n" means a new line (needs 2 backslashes because it's in an external file)
  • I've only added translations for the GUI phrases (used in Zenity), the rest of the English words which are displayed in the terminal don't need translation because they are simply for debugging and the user doesn't interact with any of those.

For now there are 75 lines to translate. When new phrases need translation (in future versions), they will be added to line 76, 77 and so on, meaning nothing you translate right now will get lost!

I know, I could have implemented this better but Ubuntu 10.04 comes out tomorrow so I figured a lot of people would be needing the script very soon.

Pending translations so far:
  • Russian - K900

Completed translations so far:
  • Czech - Translation submitted by clever fox
  • German - Translation submitted by Sebastian
  • French - Translation submitted by astromb
  • Slovak - Translation submitted by enjoy
  • Spanish - Translation submitted by Vicente. Also many thanks to CokiDVD and Ezequiel
  • Italian translation by Lippol94 (http://lippolweblog.wordpress.com), Santiago (www.uielinux.org)
  • Polish translation by buczyw. Also many thanks to Jacek
  • Japanese translation by Yuya Saito (http://ubuntu.studiomohawk.com/)
  • Dutch translation by Raoul
  • Portuguese (PT) translation by FatGiant
  • Malaysian translation by akmalhisyam (http://fossmalaya.com)
  • Galician translation by Jose Basalo
  • Turkish translation by bsod1 (http://www.osa1.net)
  • Korean translation by J.Park
  • Brazilian Portuguese translation by Benjamim and lau
  • Catalan translation by Joan Padrosa
  • Estonian translation by Magnus
  • Simplified Chinese translation by Iven Day
  • Bahasa Indonesia translation by antok
  • Asturian translation by iñigo
  • Romanian translation
  • Slovenian translation by kv1dr, summerb0y
  • Arabic translation by sub7ei
  • Swedish language by Abhijit
  • Traditional Chinese translation by Robert D. Wei
  • Vietnamese translation by Duy Thang
  • Urdu translation by Shoaib Mirza
  • Danish translation: Lars S. Hansen
  • Latvian translation by Linards Liepiņš (https://www.launchpad.net/~linards-liepins)
  • Russian translation by XRain - http://xrain.pp.ru/
  • Lithuanian translation by Edmundas Ciucko
  • Norwegian (Norsk bokmal) translation by Ole Christian Norum

Make sure you come back to this post to see if someone is already translating the script to your language so you don't translate it twice!


A big THANK YOU to everyone willing to translate Ubuntu Start!