Difference between revisions of "Localization"
(→Why it is important to provide software in Tibetan: break out how to help section.) |
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* [http://tibet.net/tb/ Central Tibetan Administration] (WordPress) | * [http://tibet.net/tb/ Central Tibetan Administration] (WordPress) | ||
* [http://www.tibetgov.net/bodyig/org.html Central Tibetan Relief Committee] (flat file) | * [http://www.tibetgov.net/bodyig/org.html Central Tibetan Relief Committee] (flat file) | ||
| + | * [http://www.gyalwarinpoche.com/ Dalai Lama Tibetan site] (custom php) | ||
* [http://www.dawakarpo.com/ Dawa Karpo] (Joomla) | * [http://www.dawakarpo.com/ Dawa Karpo] (Joomla) | ||
* [http://khabdha.org/ Khabdha.org] (WordPress) | * [http://khabdha.org/ Khabdha.org] (WordPress) | ||
Revision as of 03:40, 15 January 2011
Localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating text.
Contents
Why it is important to provide software in Tibetan
One of the main parts of culture is its language. When the language dies, the real culture dies; it lives on only in museums. Computers are a big part of the world culture today, enabling all people to talk to each other. If Tibetan is not used in the world of computers, then Tibetan culture cannot be part of that world. [1]
How to help
A techie person can find out the format for translation for a particular software, help get translations into that format, and get them into the process for that software. They don't necessarily have to know Tibetan, but it helps! At least, knowing something about the structure of the language, and any issues about displaying it, will be helpful.
Any non-techie who knows Tibetan, can do a big part: translations. The techie person will know how to get the translations into the correct form for the software.
Tibetan localization codes
There are codes in a standard format to use for languages. The first part is the language, and the second (in CAPS) is the current politically-recognised country it is spoken in:
bo_BO - Tibetan in Tibet (in past)
bo_IN - Tibetan in India
bo_US - Tibetan in United States
bo_ZH - Tibetan inside China
- Some references:
- About the Language code, at Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_code
- The language codes, at Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.orgwiki/ISO_639-1_language_matrix
- The country codes, at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1
- Very technical - The standards for these codes:
- Tags for Identifying Languages [September 2009] - RFC 5646
- Best Practices for language tags [September 2006] - RFC 4647
Tibetan localization projects
These are projects that are wished for, that are under way, or that have been done.
- Android phone: http://www.android.com/ Android operating system
- Tibetan keyboard on Android, by Nathan Freitas [November 2010]
- Filezilla - popular FTP client: http://filezilla-project.org/translations.php
- Uses standard GNU gettext message catalogs (.po files)
- Joomla - web-based Content Management System (CMS): http://docs.joomla.org/Localisation
- Uses a translation pack consisting of an xml file, a blank index file and a set of *.ini files containing the language strings for your language. http://docs.joomla.org/How_to_create_a_language_pack
- Menalto Gallery - web photo gallery program: http://gallery.menalto.com/wiki/G1_Translation_Related_Documents
- Uses standard GNU gettext message catalogs (.po files)
- Resources:
- XPDF PDF viewer: https://launchpad.net/xpdf-intl/trunk
- Uses standard GNU gettext message catalogs (.po files)
- Check above link for status - developer is looking for Tibetan translations for computer terms [July 2010]
- WordPress - web-based Content Management System (CMS): http://codex.wordpress.org/Translating_WordPress
- Uses standard GNU gettext message catalogs (.po files)
- A project is just starting to localize WordPress in Tibetan. [9 January 2011]
- WordPress plugins and themes:
Websites in Tibetan
By no means all of them! This is just a list of some representative sites using Unicode Tibetan and good web practices.
- Central Tibetan Administration (WordPress)
- Central Tibetan Relief Committee (flat file)
- Dalai Lama Tibetan site (custom php)
- Dawa Karpo (Joomla)
- Khabdha.org (WordPress)
- Shambala Post (Joomla)
References
External Links
- Internationalization and localization, at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization
- Language localization, at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_localization
- What it is; the difference between internationalization and localization; the localization process.
