[sane-devel] translation question

[Frank Zago]

Hi Andras,

Major A wrote:
> As if I didn't have enough work already... now I came up with the idea
> of creating a new translation for the SANE backends. I read the README
> in the po directory and found a .po file for each language. Now a few
> questions:
> 
> - Are the comments in the .po file that tell where a string is used
>   (file, line) automatically generated, and if yes, how? If no, are
>   they really necessary? (I would hate to have to update the file
>   every time a backend changes.)

Yes, they are. The GNU tools (xgettext, msgfmt and msgmerge) take care of the 
details. You just have to translate from english and forget about the rest.

> 
> - What happens if a string isn't found in a language? Does gettext
>   just use the original version hardcoded into the backend?

Yes. So you can do the translation bit by bit, since it's a tedious process.

Frank.