Translating Manual ================== Version 1.0.0 Written by FredFred (fredfred@dal.net) and [Mystro] (mystro@wircds.net) on 2004-01-45 Copyright (C) 2004 by the DALnet IRC Network Please direct any comments or feedback about this document (only! no help requests!) to docs@dal.net. If you need help on issues not covered in this document, please see the information at http://docs.dal.net/. Introduction ------------ Hello and thank you for showing an interest in translating for DALnet! This document has been created to explain to you the basic steps required to translate for the DALnet documentation team. This document will show you what software you must use and where you may find files to be translated into your language. Contents -------- 1 * Why am I doing this? 2 * Do not rush 3 * Software to be used 3.1 The Editor 4 * Preparing to translate 4.1 The original file will looke something like this: 5 * Translating the documents 5.1 Editing the files 1 * Why am I doing this? ------------------------ Before you begin your work as a DALnet translator, please try and remember a few things. The translating team does not get paid, we do not get special privileges and this will by NO MEANS guarantee you an O:line nor will you receive a DALnet mailing alias (name@dal.net). Now, if you find yourself asking "why am I doing this then?", PLEASE save us and yourself the time and find something more interesting to do :). We do not mean to be rude, or mean, but the documentation team requires utter and complete dedication. You should not be doing this expecting anything in return, except your personal gratification in making a difference and perhaps helping some new users have an easier experience on DALnet. 2 * Do not rush --------------- Translating documents is a task that must be done carefully and thoroughly. We will not accept any translations done by automated translating software such as Babelfish and if we find out that this was the method of your translating we will remove the documentations. 3 * Software to be used ----------------------- 3.1 * The Editor ---------------- The editor is perhaps the most importance software that is used by the translator. The entire translating process (save the parsing, which I will touch on later) is done through this editor. As such, to make sure everyone can read the documents you translate, your editor must be UTF-8 compliant and it must be able to save in a UTF-8 format. If you do not have such an editor, we have found a perfect editor that seems to work great with all of our documents. It is currently available at http://docs.dal.net/stuff/ur204.exe. Once you have downloaded and installed it, you may begin translating documents. 3.1.1 * Saving documents When saving documents please make sure to do the following in the save dialog: 1. Rename the file you work on to show it is from your language. For example, file-1.2.3.xml will be filees-1.2.3.xml, where es is a short form for spanish, as en is for english, ru is for russian, etc... 2. Set the charset to UTF-8 3. Set surrogate to ^c~u 4 * Preparing to translate -------------------------- If you are translating into a new language, you will need to translate the localisation file (found in the templates/ folder in the helpdoc parser). To do this open the english version of the file (or whichever language is easiest for you) and replace everything that needs to be replaced. 4.1 * The original file will looke something like this: ------------------------------------------------------- # format fixed strings used by the converter ###################################################### # # Note: if a value has a " in it (eg. in HTML code), it must # be prefixed with a \. # For example: # name="Some link" # HTML-specific items ##################### # Copyright (used when no tag; these go before and after dates) html-copyright-start="Copyright © " html-copyright-end=" by the DALnet IRC Network" # Feedback string (before document starts) html-feedback="Please direct any comments or feedback about this document (only! no help requests!) to docs@dal.net. If you need help on issues not covered in this document, please see the information at http://help.dal.net." # TXT-specific items #################### # Copyright (used when no tag; these go before and after dates) txt-copyright-start="Copyright (C) " txt-copyright-end=" by the DALnet IRC Network" # Feedback string (before document starts) txt-feedback="Please direct any comments or feedback about this document (only! no help requests!) to docs@dal.net. If you need help on issues not covered in this document, please see the information at http://help.dal.net/." # Shared between HTML and TXT ############################# # Version name in header version="Version" # TOC heading contents="Contents" # "Appendix" prefix appendix="Appendix" # "section" (used in crossrefs) section="section" # Used in versions written-only="Written by %1 on %2" written-original="Originally written by %1 on %2" revised="Last revised by %1 on %2" translated="Last translated by %1 on %2" # Used in list of authors from versions # (Note: This is not ideal, since the format " and " or # ", , and " is fixed whatever the language, which won't # always be correct.) and="and" 5 * Translating the documents ----------------------------- All DALnet documents are available publically. If you wish to translate a document, please visit http://docs.dal.net/xml where you will find all the XML versions of our documents. Each document resides in its own folder and within each folder you will find a folder of each language it has been translated into. As well, for ease of verification, we have generated a file located at http://docs.dal.net/stuff/filesdone.htm which contains all the files that have been translated to date. If english is not your strongest language, you may look into any of the other files and translate based on them as they all contain the same information 5.1 * Editing the files ----------------------- When translating, open the XML file with your editor, where you will find a header similar to this: Managing Annoyances on IRC Kzoo kzoo@dal.net LadyDana ladydana@dal.net 2001-01-24
Introduction

... You will need to modify parts of this header in order to give yourself credit for the translation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IRC: /server irc.dal.net 7000 (also port 6667) The Web: http://www.dal.net/ DALnet Help: http://help.dal.net/ Docs: http;//docs.dal.net IRC FTP: ftp://ftp.dal.net/ Network! Email: help@dal.net (help), docs@dal.net (help documents), suggest@dal.net (suggestions and comments)