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version 1.9, 2003/09/20 17:44:22 version 1.10, 2003/09/22 18:16:43
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 ######################################################################  ######################################################################
 ######################################################################  ######################################################################
   
   =pod
   
   =head1 NAME
   
   Apache::lonlocal - provides localization services
   
   =head1 SYNOPSIS
   
   lonlocal provides localization services for LON-CAPA programmers based
   on Locale::Maketext. See
   C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Locale-Maketext/lib/Locale/Maketext.pod>
   for more information on Maketext.
   
   =head1 OVERVIEWX<internationalization>
   
   As of LON-CAPA 1.1, we've started to localize LON-CAPA using the
   Locale::Maketext module. Internationalization is the bulk of the work
   right now (pre-1.1); localizing can be done anytime, and involves 
   little or no programming.
   
   The internationalization process involves putting a wrapper around
   on-screen user messages and menus and turning them into keys,
   which the MaketextX<Maketext> library translates into the desired
   language output using a look-up table ("lexicon").X<lexicon>
   
   As keys we are currently using the plain English messages, and
   Maketext is configured to replace the message by its own key if no
   translation is found. This makes it easy to phase in the
   internationalization without disturbing the screen output.
   
   Internationalization is somewhat tedious and effectively impossible
   for a non-fluent speaker to perform, but is fairly easy to create
   translations, requiring no programming skill. As a result, this is one
   area where you can really help LON-CAPA out, even if you aren't a
   programmer, and we'd really appreciate it.
   
   =head1 How To Localize Handlers For Programmers
   
   Into the "use" section of a module, we need to insert
   
    use Apache::lonlocal;
   
   Note that there are B<no parentheses>, we B<want> to pollute our
   namespace. 
   
   Inside might be something like this
   
    sub message {
        my $status=shift;
        my $message='Status unknown';
        if ($status eq 'WON') {
           $message='You have won.';
        } elsif ($status eq 'LOST') {
           $message='You are a total looser.';
        }
        return $message;
    }
    ...
    $r->print('<h3>Gamble your Homework Points</h3>');
    ...
    $r->print(<<ENDMSG);
    <font size="1">Rules:</font>
    <font size="0">No purchase necessary. Illegal where not allowed.</font>
    ENDMSG
   
   We have to now wrap the subroutine &mt()X<mt> ("maketext") around our 
   messages, but not around markup, etc. We also want minimal disturbance. 
   The first two examples are easy:
   
    sub message {
        my $status=shift;
        my $message='Status unknown';
        if ($status eq 'WON') {
           $message='You have won.';
        } elsif ($status eq 'LOST') {
           $message='You are a total looser.';
        }
        return &mt($message);
    }
    ...
    $r->print('<h3>'.&mt('Gamble your Homework Points').'</h3>');
   
   The last one is a bummer, since you cannot call subroutines inside of 
   (<<MARKER). I have written a little subroutine to generate a translated 
   hash for that purpose:
   
    my %lt=&Apache::lonlocal::texthash('header' => 'Rules', 'disclaimer' => 
    'No purchase necessary. Illegal where not allowed.');
    $r->print(<<ENDMSG);
    <font size="1">$lt{'header'}:</font>
    <font size="0">$lt{'disclaimer'}</font>
    ENDMSG
   
   As a programmer, your job is done here. If everything worked, you 
   should see no changes on the screen.
   
   =head1 How To Localize LON-CAPA for Translators
   
   As a translator, you need to provide the lexicon for the keys, which in 
   this case is the plain text message. The lexicons sit in 
   loncom/localize/localize, with the language code as filename, for 
   example de.pm for the German translation. The file then simply looks 
   like this:
   
       'You have won.'
    => 'Sie haben gewonnen.',
   
       'You are a total looser.'
    => 'Sie sind der totale Verlierer.',
   
       'Rules'
    => 'Regeln',
   
       'No purchase necessary. Illegal where not allowed.'
    => 'Es ist erlaubt, einfach zu verlieren, und das ist Ihre Schuld.'
   
   The German translation lexicon is in pretty okay shape, but not 
   complete yet. Portuguese currently only covers the login screen. 
   Russian is purely experimental. Looks like UTF-8 is the way to encode 
   this, at least for latin/greek-based languages, but we still have to 
   learn a lot.
   
   Comments may be added with the # symbol, which outside of a string
   (the things with the apostrophe surrounding them, which are the 
   keys and translations) will cause the translation routines to
   ignore the rest of the line.
   
   This is a relatively easy task, and any help is appreciated.
   
   Maketext can do a whole lot more, see
   C<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Locale-Maketext/lib/Locale/Maketext.pod>
   but for most purposes, we do not have to mess with that.
   
   =cut
   
 package Apache::lonlocal;  package Apache::lonlocal;
   
 use strict;  use strict;
Removed from v.1.9  
changed lines
  Added in v.1.10

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