TRANSLATING VIM MESSAGES This file explains how to create and maintain po files using gnu-gettext.win32, a Windows port of gettext by Franco Bez . You can find it at: http://people.freenet.de/franco.bez/gettext/gettext_win32_en.html First read the README.txt file in this directory for general remarks on translating Vim messages. SETUP Set the environment variable LANGUAGE to the language code for the language you are translating Vim messages to. Language codes are typically two characters and you can find a list of them at: http://www.geocities.com/click2speak/languages.html Another possibility is to use the gnuwin32 port of gettext. This is recommended especially if you use already gnuwin32 tools to gunzip, bunzip, patch etc. these files. You find the gnuwin32 version of gettext here: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gettext.htm Yet another very strait forward way is to get the sources of gettext from http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/gettext.html and build your own version of these tools. The documentation states that this should be possible with MSVC4.0, MSVC5.0, MSVC6.0 or MSVC7.0, but you can build it even successfully with MSVC8.0. The LANGUAGE environment variable can be set from the command line, by adding a line to your autoexec.bat file, or by defining a user variable from the Advanced tab in the System control panel. Next, edit Make_mvc.mak so that GETTEXT_PATH points the binary directory of the installation. CREATING A NEW TRANSLATION When creating a new translation you must add your language code to the Make_mvc.mak file in the lines defining LANGUAGES and MOFILES. To create the initial .po file for your language you must use the command: make -f make_mvc.mak first_time Note: You need to be in the po directory when using this makefile. Once you have your new .po file load it into Vim and source cleanup.vim, this will convert untranslated messages to comments. If you have syntax highlighting turned on then untranslated messages will stand out more easily. You will also need to edit the file names in the comments in the .po file. You need to remove the absolute directory specification (which has the form c:\vim61\src\). You can do this in Vim with the following command with the appropriate directory specification for where you have installed the Vim source: %s/c:\\vim61\\src\\//g UPDATING A TRANSLATION If there are new or changed messages in Vim that need translating, then the first thing to do is merge them into the existing translations. This is done with the following command: nmake -f Make_mvc.mak xx.po where xx is the language code for the language needing translations. The original .po file is copied to xx.po.orig. DOING THE TRANSLATION Now that you have a .po file you can do the translations for all messages that need it. See README.txt for specific instructions. Once you have finished translating the messages you should make sure all non-translated strings are commented out. This can be done by sourcing cleanup.vim once again. CHECKING THE TRANSLATION Check the translation with the following command: nmake -f make_mvc.mak xx.mo Correct any syntax errors reported. When there are no more errors, the translation is ready to be installed. INSTALLING THE TRANSLATION Install your translation with the following command: nmake -f make_mvc.mak install This will create the xx\LC_MESSAGES directory in runtime\lang if it does not already exist. vim:tw=78: