Skip to main content
`Ctrl`+`K`

# Translate ASE

You can contribute by translating the ASE GUI, ASE’s GUI, into your language.

## How to translate

If any of the below steps prove difficult, be sure to ask on the developer mailing list. These steps should work on GNU/Linux.

- Download ASE.

- Go to `ase/gui/po`. There is a directory of the form `ll` or `ll_LL` for each language, where `ll` is the language code and `LL` the country code. The latter is necessary only if variants of the same language are spoken in multiple countries.

- If your language is not there already, run `LANG=ll make init`, substituting the desired language code. If necessary append the country code as well: `LANG=ll_LL ...`.

- There should now be a template file for your language, `ll/LC_MESSAGES/ag.po`, which can be filled out.

You can edit the po-file with any text editor. It is easiest with a dedicated po-editor such as gtranslator, poedit or the gettext mode in EMACS (the package “`gettext-el`”). Fill out the missing `msgstr` entries like this:

    #: ../energyforces.py:61
    msgid "Calculate potential energy and the force on all atoms"
    msgstr "Beregn potentiel energi og kræfter på alle atomer"

Your editor may wholly or partially hide some of the difficult formatting syntax. This next example shows a more syntactically complex case in case you need it:

    #: ../calculator.py:107
    msgid ""
    "GPAW implements Density Functional Theory using a\n"
    "<b>G</b>rid-based real-space representation of the wave\n"
    "functions, and the <b>P</b>rojector <b>A</b>ugmented <b>W</b>ave\n"
    "method for handling the core regions.  \n"
    msgstr ""
    "GPAW implementerer tæthedsfunktionalteori med en <b>G</b>itterbaseret\n"
    "repræsentation af bølgefunktioner i det reelle rum, samt\n"
    "<b>P</b>rojector <b>A</b>ugmented <b>W</b>ave-metoden til behandling\n"
    "af regionen omkring atomkerner.  \n"

If you are maintaining an existing translation, there may be some “fuzzy” messages. These are translations that were written previously but now need to be reviewed, maybe because the original string has been slightly modified. Edit them as appropriate and remove the “fuzzy” flag.

There will be a few special constructs such as string substitution codes `%(number)d` or `%s`. These should remain unchanged in the translation as they are replaced by numbers or text at runtime. An underscore like in `msgid "_File"` indicates that `F` is a shortcut key. Conflicting shortcut keys are not a big problem, but avoid them if you see them. Finally, some messages may have a lot of whitespace in them. This is due to bad programming style; just try to get approximately the same spacing in your translation.

Already after writing a few translations, you can check that the translation works as expected by following the instructions in the next section.

## Check and commit your translation

- You can check the syntax by running `msgfmt -cv ag.po`. This will report any syntax errors.

- You can test your translation in ASE’s GUI directly. First issue the command `make` in `ase/gui/po`, then reinstall ASE using the usual procedure. The translations will then be in the newly installed ASE. If you translate into the same language as your computer’s locale, you should see the translations when you start ASE’s GUI normally. If you translate ASE into another language, then run `LANG=ll_LL.UTF-8 ase gui`. On some operating systems you may need to run `LANGUAGE=ll_LL.UTF-8 ase gui` instead.

Depending on your operating system, you may need to install `gettext` or `locales`.

Send the partially or completely translated po-file to the developers mailing list and ask to have it committed. In fact, we will be quite thrilled if you send an e-mail even before you start, and be sure to send one whenever you have questions.

Note

Certain uncommon languages such as Lojban, Anglo-Saxon or Klingon may not be compatible with our current build system. Please let us know if you want to translate ASE into such languages.

## Maintaining translations

Messages will once in a while be added or changed in the ASE. Running `make` in `ase/gui/po` automatically synchronizes all templates with the messages in the current source tree while maximally reusing the existing translations. Some strings may be marked “fuzzy”, indicating that they need review by translators (this happens e.g. if an English message is changed only slightly). One can then update the few fuzzy or untranslated messages. The obvious time to do this is shortly before a new stable release.

If you are a committer, please run `make` before committing and briefly check by running the translated GUI that nothing is obviously horrible.