diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'tools/linguist/book/linguist-manager.leaf')
| -rw-r--r-- | tools/linguist/book/linguist-manager.leaf | 138 |
1 files changed, 138 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/tools/linguist/book/linguist-manager.leaf b/tools/linguist/book/linguist-manager.leaf new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa99e01 --- /dev/null +++ b/tools/linguist/book/linguist-manager.leaf @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +\chapter Release Manager + +\index Release Manager + +Two tools are provided for the release manager, \l lupdate and \l +lrelease. These tools depend on \e qmake project files. You don't +have to use \e qmake, though. + +A third tool, \c qm2ts, can be used for converting Qt 2.x message +files to \c .ts files. + +\section1 Qt Project Files + +\index .pro Files +\index Project Files +\index qmake!Project Files + +\l lupdate and \l lrelease depend on information in the application's +\c .pro Qt project file. There must be an entry in the \c TRANSLATIONS +section of the project file for each language that is additional to +the native language. A typical entry looks like this: + +\index TRANSLATIONS!in Project Files + +\quotefile tt2/tt2.pro +\skipto TRANSLATIONS +\printline tt2_fr +\printline tt2_nl + +Using a locale within the translation file name is useful for +determining which language to load at runtime. This is explained in +\link Programmers Chapter 4: Programmers \endlink. + +\index HEADERS!in Project Files +\index SOURCES!in Project Files +\index FORMS!in Project Files +\index TRANSLATIONS!in Project Files + +An example of a complete \c .pro file with four translation source files: +\code + HEADERS = main-dlg.h \ + options-dlg.h + SOURCES = main-dlg.cpp \ + options-dlg.cpp \ + main.cpp + FORMS = search-dlg.ui + TRANSLATIONS = superapp_dk.ts \ + superapp_fi.ts \ + superapp_no.ts \ + superapp_se.ts +\endcode + +\index QApplication!defaultCodec() +\index defaultCodec()!QApplication +\index DEFAULTCODEC!in Project Files +\index Chinese Language +\index Japanese Language + +\l QTextCodec::setCodecForTr() makes it possible to choose a +8-bit encoding for literal strings that appear within \c tr() calls. +This is useful for applications whose source language is, for example, +Chinese or Japanese. If no encoding is set, \c tr() uses Latin-1. + +If you do use the \l QTextCodec::codecForTr() mechanism in your +application, \e {Qt Linguist} needs you to set the \c DEFAULTCODEC +entry in the \c .pro file as well. For example: +\code + DEFAULTCODEC = ISO-8859-5 +\endcode + +\section1 lupdate + +\index lupdate + +Usage: \c {lupdate myproject.pro} + + \index Qt Designer + +This is a simple command line tool. \l lupdate reads a Qt \c .pro +project file, finds the translatable strings in the specified source, +header and \e {Qt Designer} interface files, and produces or updates +the \c .ts translation files listed in the project file. The +translation files are given to the translator who uses \e {Qt +Linguist} to read the files and insert the translations. + +Companies that have their own translators in-house may find it useful +to run \l lupdate regularly, perhaps monthly, as the application +develops. This will lead to a fairly low volume of translation work +spread evenly over the life of the project and will allow the +translators to support a number of projects simultaneously. + +Companies that hire in translators as required may prefer to run \l +lupdate only a few times in the application's life cycle, the first +time might be just before the first test phase. This will provide the +translator with a substantial single block of work and any bugs that +the translator detects may easily be included with those found during +the initial test phase. The second and any subsequent \l lupdate runs +would probably take place during the final beta phase. + +\index .ts Files +\index Translation Source Files +\index XML + +The \c .ts file format is a simple human-readable XML format that can +be used with version control systems if required. + +\section1 lrelease + +\index lrelease + +Usage: \c {lrelease myproject.pro} + +\index .qm Files +\index Qt Message Files + +This is another simple command line tool. It reads a Qt \c .pro +project file and produces the \c .qm files used by the application, +one for each \c .ts translation source file listed in the project +file. The \c .qm file format is a compact binary format that provides +extremely fast lookups for translations. + +This tool is run whenever a release of the application is to be made, +from initial test version through to final release version. If the \c +.qm files are not created, e.g. because an alpha release is required +before any translation has been undertaken, the application will run +perfectly well using the text the programmers placed in the source +files. Once the \c .qm files are available the application will +detect them and use them automatically. + +Note that \l lrelease will only incorporate translations that are +marked as "done". If a translation is missing, or has failed +validation, the original text will be used instead. + +\section1 Missing Translations + +Both \l lupdate and \l lrelease may be used with \c .ts translation +source files which are incomplete. Missing translations will be replaced +with the native language phrases at runtime. |