The GNU locale package (`glocale') is a set of tools that provides a
framework to help other GNU packages produce multilingual messages.
`glocale' is currently undergoing alpha testing.

A handful of GNU packages have already been adapted and provided
with message translations for several languages.  Translation
teams have begun to organize, using these packages as a starting
point.  But there are many more packages and many languages for
which we have no volunteer translators.  If you would like to
volunteer to work at translating messages, please send mail to
`gnu-locale@prep.ai.mit.edu' indicating what language(s) you can
work on.

This very GNU package is `localizable'.  Once installed, it can
be made to speak your native language (or mother tongue).  Look in
the distribution for translation files, like:

	de.tt  for German
	fr.tt  for French
	nl.tt  for Dutch
	sv.tt  for Swedish

If your language is already supported, usage is quite simple.
Let's suppose, here, that you speak German.  At the shell prompt,
execute `setenv LANG de' (in csh) or `export LANG; LANG=de' (in sh).
You may even want to put this in your .login or .profile file.

If your language is not supported, you have to work a bit for it.
Let's suppose again that you speak German.  Eventually, when the GNU
locale package will have been published, you will follow these steps:

1) Check with the maintainer if the work has been, or is being done.
2) Ensure that GNU locale has been installed on your site.
3) In the distribution, initialize `de.tt' by copying `fr.tt'.
4) Carefully edit `de.tt', replacing French parts by German parts.
5) Edit `Makefile.in', adding `de.msg' to the `CATALOGS =' line.
6) You do not need to reconfigure again.  Execute `make install'.
7) Use `setenv LANG de', and just use the programs as usual.
8) Send `de.tt' to the maintainer, to be later distributed in GNU.

But for the time being, GNU local package is still in alpha pretest,
so you are not completely free of me yet!  Rather follow these steps:

1) Check with the maintainer if the work has been, or is being done.
2) In the distribution, initialize `de.tt' by copying `fr.tt'.
3) Carefully edit `de.tt', replacing French parts by German parts.
4) Send `de.tt' to the maintainer, then wait for `de.msg' in return.
5) Install `de.msg' as `/usr/local/share/locale/de/PACKAGE.msg'.
6) Use `setenv LANG de', and just use the programs as usual.

In step 5), of course, replace PACKAGE by the GNU package name, which
is usually the first word in the name of the distributed tar file.


Before diving into this, first check how you feel about these points:

* Be very careful at representing your language nicely, using
the good words, avoiding orthographic mistakes, putting proper
diacritics.  In a word, try to set up good examples.

* As far as possible, translate the spirit of a message more than
its words.  There often exist more precise, or nicer ways to say the
same thing.  Sometimes, translation may improve the original text.

* Respect the general formatting of the texts you translate.  Do not
add nor remove prefix or suffix newlines.  Pay attention to keep
within 79 columns lines that were within 79 columns to start with.
For multi-line messages, it usually does not matter if you replace
them with translations of fewer or more lines.  You judge!

* When translating legal text, like a paragraph explaining copyright
matters, please prepend to your translation a translation of
this sentence: ``The following text is an unapproved translation,
provided here for informative purposes; for legal interpretation,
the original English text prevails.''
