Baslinux mailing list

["Krzysztof A. Suchecki" <christopher.suchecki AT wp.pl>]

> Andrew Langdon-Davies wrote:

> > How can I add support for foreign languages to BL2? 

Steven wrote: 

> However, the easiest way to get foreign language support 
> may be to use BL1.  Chris has put foreign language support 
> into BL1 and he probably will be able to steer you in the 
> right direction.


Adding support for foreign language can be divided into:

Console
=======
1. changing font and keyboard layout to proper one.
2. setting linux to show messages in proper language.
3. adding support for other programs like mc.
4. adding manpages in required language

X
=
1. changing font and keyboard layout to proper one.
2. settig support for messages (like in KDE)

I will give some notes for adding support for Polish language.


As for Console:
===============
1. changing font and keyboard layout to proper one.

Check and put if required your font into
/usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts (BL1)
/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (BL2 ? fix me)

and keyboard
/usr/lib/kbd/keymaps (BL1)
/usr/share/kbd/keymaps (BL2 ? fix me)

Now tell linux to use required font and keyboard map:
(suppose we are with BL1)

---------------
setfont /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/iso02grf.psf
loadkeys /usr/lib/kbd/keymaps/pl02.map 
---------------

I don't remember if in SLack 7.1 you have to
use 'consolechars" instead of 'setfont'

Test if it works - try `pico`.
QST:"I can in pico but not under pure command line!"
ANS: Put in ~/.inputrc the following:

-----------
set meta-flag on
set convert-meta off
set output-meta on
set input-meta on
----------



2. setting linux to show messages in proper language.

edit /etc/profile (or: ~/.profile)
put # before `export LC_ALL=POSIX` and add below:
--------------
export LANG=pl
export LC_ALL=pl_PL
export LESSCHARSET=latin1
--------------

(currently in Slackware 3.5 I see LC_MESSAGES in 
/usr/share/locale/pl/LC_MESSAGES for fileutils, tar
and grep -- not too much :( )



3. adding support for other programs like mc.

In mc set in Options -> Display Bits -> ISO 8859-1 and Full 8 bits input,
and Full 8 bits output.



4. adding manpages in required language

well if you have manpages in your language already in original SLackware
distro, you are lucky. If not, you have to download it from somewhere
(look at "localized man pages" on WWW about linux in your country).

Structure of downloaded file is sth like:
\usr\man\pl_PL\man1
\usr\man\pl_PL\man2 
...

Now you have to config man (/etc/man.config or /usr/lib/man.conf)

Check if `-T` in

NROFF          /usr/bin/groff -S -Tascii -mandoc

is set properly.

For example for Polish I have to change it to:

NROFF           /usr/bin/groff -S -Tlatin1 -mandoc

You may want hyphenation patterns for your language.
Just take them from TeX :) 
---------------------------------------
cp /usr/lib/texmf/tex/generic/hyphen/plhyph.tex 
/usr/share/groff/tmac/hyphen.pl
---------------------------------------
Now set macros in /usr/share/groff/tmac/troffrc

lines:

.\" Set the hyphenation language to `us'.
.do hla us
.\" Load hyphenation patterns from `hyphen.us' (in the tmac directory).
.do hpf hyphen.us

change to: 

.\" Set the hyphenation language to `pl'.
.do hla pl
.\" Load hyphenation patterns from `hyphen.pl' (in the tmac directory).
.do hpf hyphen.pl


Now back to /etc/profile and:

export MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/man:/usr/X11R6/man

change to:

export MANPATH=/usr/man/pl_Pl:/usr/local/man:/usr/man:/usr/X11R6/man


Of course re-login.


X
=
Adding support for X Window is another story. It's in general
some kind of mess :)


Chris


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"26 maja Dzień Matki - wyślij kwiaty." Poczta Kwiatowa doręcza kwiaty
pod wskazany adres na całym świecie. < http://pasaz.wp.pl/app/vsmp.po?s=46 >