Glossary
A
Auxiliary file
is a &kbabel; specific issue. It is an option for the user to
set up one PO file to search through for original messages. For example,
if you're a member of French team and have some Spanish or Italian
knowledge you can grab and set-up an auxiliary Spanish PO file
associated with the file currently being translated.
C
Compendium file
is a collection of all translations
for one language. This big PO file
is made by unique messages from all
applications' PO files. It can
be used to fill in all already translated
strings into a new yet untranslated
or partially translated PO file.
&kbabel; uses such a file in the PO Compendium
search engine.
F
Fuzzy
This is a flag generated, in general,
by msgmerge. It shows
that a msgstr string
might not be a correct translation.
The translator must see and make modifications
to the string if necessary and then remove
the fuzzy
flag
from the message's comment.
I
Internationalization
i18n
is the operation by which an application
is made aware and able to support multiple
languages. The word internationalization
has 20 characters so, to shorten it,
people started to write only
the first and last characters and between them
write the number of intermediate characters (18)
forming the common abbreviation i18n.
L
Localization
l10n
is the operation by which an application
already internationalized is made
to process input and output in a fashion
desired by some cultural and language habits.
The word localization
has 12 characters so, to shorten it,
people started to write only
the first and last characters and between them
write the number of intermediate characters (10)
forming the common abbreviation l10n.
M
MO file
MO
MO stands for Machine Object
. A MO file
contains binary data suitable
for reading by computers.
The contents of a MO file are organized as a database
to minimize the lookup time
for translated strings. MO files
are obtained by compiling PO files
using msgfmt.
Message ID
msgid
msgid is the keyword
which introduces the original string in a PO file.
It is followed by a C-like string that spans
one or more lines.
Message String
msgstr
msgstr is the keyword
which introduce the translated string in PO file.
It is followed by C-like string that span
on one or multiple lines.
P
PO file
PO
PO stands for Portable Object
. PO files
contain sets of strings which
associate each translatable string
with its translation in a particular
language. A single PO file relates
to only one language. A PO file is
derived from a POT file and is
edited either by hand or using &kbabel;.
POT file
POT
POT stands for Portable Object Template
. A POT
file is built by extracting all the
translatable strings from application
source files. A POT
file does not
contain translations into any particular language—
it is used by the translators as a template.