Re: [XBoard-devel] Internationalization

[h.g. muller]

The internationalized version of WinBoard that is now at 
http://hgm.nubati.net/winbo_int.zip
now also has a (still imperfectly implemented) feature to switch language 
interactively.
If language files (*.lng) are found in the WinBoard folder, their name 
(stripped of the .lng extension)
will be appended to the Help menu, together with an item 'English'. (So 
after unpacking the
download at the given link, you should see menu items English and Español.)

Before continuing on this track, I would like to have some feedback, to 
determine if this is really
what we want,or if it would be best to have people only select language 
through command-line options
(which, after the first time, will be safely hidden in the ini file). 
Perhaps using the OS default language
(if we can figure it out, and if it is available) when no such option is given.

The problem is that this is a rather awkward patch, because I implemented 
the translations by reading
out the items, translating them, and putting the translated strings back. 
This is fne for the transient
dialogs, which always start their life as specified in the resource file, 
i.e. in English. But it is a bit of
a disaster in permanent dialogs such as Engine Output, Game List and such, 
which are never closed,
just hidden. There, once translated, the original texts are gone, and there 
is no way to get them back,
or re-translate in a different way. Same with the menus, wich are also 
permanent features.
So it would be necessary to give all the permanent dialogs special 
treatment, remembering their
English texts, and retranslating it on every language switch. (For the 
menus I already did that.)