How to translate the Darkover Site

Translation of the Darkover Site is a really big task. There are currently almost 200 pages and several new pages are added each month. The rewrite of the site was partly started in order to ease the translation process and I hope I manage to simplify things. Anyway, there is still a lot of work to do...

Translation into an already supported language

This is the easiest part of the job. Supported languages include currently English and French. German and Portuguese should be supported before the end of the year (98).

If the language in which you want to translate is supported, you just have to translate the content of the page you want to work on. In order to do so, you must choose an original version (for instance english) and download the source file. This is very easy: you first load the page you want to translate in the original language and then, you use the link named source file at the bottom of the page. When the new page has been loaded, you can save it on your computer. You can also use the list of french pages that have not been translated to download directly the source file. Ask me before starting a translation: some pages are automatically generated and must be translated in an appropriate way.

In order to translate the page, you must understand some basic concept of htmlpp, the tool I use to produce pages. You'll see that it is quite simple. Basically, you just need to translate anything that is not a markup or inside a markup.

When your translation is ready, you just have to send it to me and I'll include it as soon as possible.

Providing a new language support

This part is really tricky and the best way to do it is simply to ask me instructions. They will depend on your computer knowledge. Moreover, we will have to work together because complex modification of the site might be needed in order to support languages that are very different from western languages.

The main language dependant macro file

In order to provide a new language support, you must translate the main language dependant macro file. This file consists of simple htmlpp macros. Each macro defines a text in the target language, as explained is the table that follows (text in red IS NOT produced by the macro):

Macro name	Purpose	Typical use
`text::lastmodif`	Used at the bottom of each page to give the last modification date of a page. Must contain a colon.	Last modification: some date
`text::darkover`	Darkover in the target language	Darkover
`text::credit`	Allows to print that a page was written by someone	written by someone
`text::sourcefile`	Name of the bottom link of each that allows to download the source file for this page.	The source file is source file
`text::htmlby`	Allows to credit the author of the html version of the current page.	HTML version by someone
`text::translatedby`	Allows to credit the translator of a page.	Translated by someone
`text::translatedfrom`	Allows to specify from which original version a page has been translated.	from this page
`text::site`	Text for the link to site specific pages index.	Site
`text::guide`	Text for the link to reading guide specific pages index.	Guide
`text::ency`	Text for the link to encyclopedia specific pages index.	Encyclopedia
`text::fan`	Text for the link to fan activities specific pages index.	Fans
`text::search`	Text for the link to the search pages.	Search
`text::link`	Text for the link to the link page.	Links
`text::mainindex`	Text for the alt field of the Darkover site logo	Main index
`text::character`	The keyword associated to character description pages.	Character
`text::description`	Used in the description meta tag of character description pages.	Description of Regis Hastur
`text::familly`	Used in character description pages as a title to familly related information.	My Familly is:
`text::parents`	Used in character description pages as a title to parents related information.	My Parents are:
`text::involved`	Used in character description pages as a title to the list of novels in which the given character appears.	Involved in The Heritage of Hastur
`text::children`	Used in character description pages as a title to children related information. Used only if the described character as several children.	My Children are:
`text::child`	Used in character description pages as a title to child related information. Used only if the described character only one child.	My Children is:
`text::brothers`	Used in character description pages as a title to brother and sister related information.	My Brothers and sisters are:
`text::aka`	Abbreviation for Also Known As.	Lewis a.k.a. Lew
`text::page`	Used for book referencing: corresponds to one page.	see page 14
`text::pages`	Used for book referencing: corresponds to several pages.	see pages 14 and 15
`text::and`	Used for book referencing.	pages 14 and 15
`text::appearance`	Used in character description pages as a title the physical description of a character.	My Appearance is:
`text::married`	Used to say that someone is married to someone else.	Regis is Married to Linnea
`text::married::dc`	The Di Catenas wedding.	Di Catenas wedding
`text::married::mt`	The Mountaineer traditional wedding.	Mountaineer traditional wedding
`text::married::fr`	Free mating.	Free mating
`text::fullname`	Use to specify a character full name in character pages.	Lew's Full name is Lewis-Kennard Lanart-Montray Alton y Aldaran
`text::novel::back`	Used to go back...	Back
`text::novel::noback`	Used in the novel pages to say a novel is the first one in a given order.	First novel
`text::novel::forward`	Used to go forward...	Next
`text::novel::noforward`	Used in the novel pages to say a novel is the last one in a given order.	Last novel
`text::novel::summary`	Title of novel page section that contains Daw's presentation.	"Official" presentation (from Daw Books)
`text::novel::guide`	Title of the novel page reading guide section	Reading guide
`text::novel::guide::period`	Use in the reading guide section of novel pages to introduce the historical period of the novel	Darkover history period: Against the Terrans-The first Age (Recontact)
`text::novel::guide::related`	Use in the reading guide section of novel pages to introduce the list of novel related to the current one.	What to read before and after: Stormqueen!
`text::novel::guide::note`	Use in the reading guide section of novel pages to introduce short notes about the novel.	Notes:
`text::novel::review`	Title of the review section of novel page.	My personal opinion
`text::novel::more`	Title of additional information section of the novel page.	More about the novel

source file (Last modification: Wed Apr 21 17:21:45 1999)