TRANSLATE(2)

NAME

translate: opendict, opendicts, mkdictname − translation dictionaries

SYNOPSIS

include "translate.m";
translate := load Translate Translate->PATH;
Dict: adt {
    new:    fn(): ref Dict;
    add:    fn(d: self ref Dict, file: string): string;
    xlate: fn(d: self ref Dict, s: string): string;
    xlaten: fn(d: self ref Dict, s: string, note: string): string;
};
init:       fn();
opendict:   fn(file: string): (ref Dict, string);
opendicts: fn(files: list of string): (ref Dict, string);
mkdictname: fn(locale, app: string): string;

DESCRIPTION

The Translate module provides access to the translation dictionaries defined by translate(6), intended for the translation of text from one natural language to another.

Init should be called before using any of these functions.

Opendict opens a dictionary file (of the format defined below) and returns a tuple: a reference to a Dict that represents it and a diagnostic string (which is nil if no error occurred). Opendicts is similar, but loads each of the files in turn into the same Dict, producing a composite dictionary in which translations in later files can override translations in earlier ones; the diagnostic string summarises all errors (if any).

Mkdictname returns the conventional name of a dictionary file given locale and application names. The locale is normally nil to use the current locale.

Dict.new returns an empty dictionary. Dict.add loads the given dictionary file into an existing dictionary, returning a non-nil diagnostic string on error. Translations are made by Dict.xlate and Dict.xlaten: they look for a string s (eg, text in one language), optionally qualified by a note, and return the corresponding translation text from the dictionary. If no such translation exists, they return the original text s.

EXAMPLE

The following shows one possible style of use:

include "translate.m";
translate: Translate;
Dict: import translate;
dict: ref Dict;
X(s: string): string
{
if(dict == nil)
return s;
return dict.xlate(s);
}
init(ctxt: ref Draw->Context, args: list of string)
{
...
translate = load Translate Translate->PATH;
if(translate != nil){
translate->init();
(dict, nil) = translate->opendict(
translate->mkdictname("", "vmail"));
}
...
optioncfg := array [] of {
"frame .op -relief flat -borderwidth 8",
"frame .op.lbs",
"label .op.lbs.a -text {" +
X("Voice Mail Active") + ":}",
"label .op.lbs.g -text {" +
X("Answer Calls With") + ":}",
"label .op.lbs.r -text {" +
X("Rings before Answering") + ":}",
"label .op.lbs.l -text {" +
X("Length of Incoming Messages") + ":}}",
...
};
...
wmlib->tkcmds(top, optioncfg);
}

The intermediate function X is defined to allow the program to be used (albeit with text in English) even when the Translate module cannot be loaded.

FILES

/locale/dict/locale/app

SOURCE

/appl/lib/translate.b

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