Translations

Writing strings

Interface text goes through tr, with the English text itself as the key, as in gettext:

Text::new(tr("Wi-Fi Is Off"))

Values stay out of the sentence, so a translator can move them:

trf("{} of {} free", &[free.as_str(), total.as_str()])

Without a translation, the English text is shown. Nothing breaks when a string is missing; it is only not translated yet.

Catalogs

A catalog is a JSON object, one per language, in the applet’s locales/ folder:

{
  "Wi-Fi Is Off": "Wi-Fi выключен",
  "{} of {} free": "Свободно {} из {}"
}

The applet embeds its catalogs and registers them once, before run:

use nirvana_protocol::{i18n, prelude::*};

fn main() {
    i18n::init(&[("ru", include_str!("../locales/ru.json"))]);
    run(|_handle| MyApplet::new());
}

The window’s title is translated in the registry (titles), since the runtime needs it before the applet has said anything.

Which language

The person’s choice in Settings > Language (~/.config/etyde/locale), otherwise the session’s locale (LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, LANG). i18n::language() gives the code in use, for the rare thing that depends on it (the decimal mark in the calculator).

Applets pick up a change of language while they run.

Adding a language

A language is one more catalog in each applet, registered in its i18n::init, and one more choice in Settings > Language.

Writing well

• Title Case for titles, buttons and row titles; sentence case for descriptions.
• Name a button after what it does: “Join”, “Forget This Network”. Not “OK”.
• An ellipsis (…) marks an action that will ask for more, and a state in progress.
• Typographic quotes and apostrophes: “Home”, isn’t.
• No full stop after a label or a subtitle of one line; full sentences in footers and messages end with one.
• A translation follows the conventions of its own language: Russian uses «ёлочки» and sentence case for titles.