[R-gui] tcltk internationalization for built-in buttons
Ulrike Groemping
groemp at tfh-berlin.de
Tue Nov 11 21:40:09 CET 2008
Dear John,
thanks, I did not know Brian Ripley's R News article yet, though I did know
the web sources on translation. I don't even have to change the language for
checking translation, because I am always in a German system and program
everything in English - if it works I see it in my language :-)
I suppose I will have to create the po files for package-specific messages
(that should be doable) and to somehow compile these into mo files (I don't
quite know how to do that yet, I seem to have to install GNU gettext and
take it from there). For my current prototype phase, I think I will simply
stick with the msgcat solution and later replace the internationalization
function with a function based on gettext. Since the main work work on the
package will only start next year, I am currently only interested in fixing
conceptual thoughts and checking principle feasibility of things I would
like to include.
Thanks again,
Regards, Ulrike
John Fox wrote:
>
> Dear Ulrike,
>
> Using gettext within R is really quite simple. You're probably aware of
> this, but just in case, you can consult Brian Ripley's article in the May
> 2005 R News, the section on internationalization and localization in the R
> Installation and Administration manual, and the document at
> <http://developer.r-project.org/Translations.html>.
>
> Under Windows, you can check that that your translation is working by,
> e.g., setting the language in the target field of a shortcut to Rgui. For
> example, I typically check in Spanish with the target field set to
> C:\R\R-2.8.0\bin\Rgui.exe language=es.
>
> I hope this helps,
> John
>
> ------------------------------
> John Fox, Professor
> Department of Sociology
> McMaster University
> Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
> web: socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: r-sig-gui-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch [mailto:r-sig-gui-
>> bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Ulrike Groemping
>> Sent: November-11-08 9:17 AM
>> To: r-sig-gui at stat.math.ethz.ch
>> Subject: Re: [R-gui] tcltk internationalization for built-in buttons
>>
>>
>> Hello Philippe,
>>
>> I see now that I was being naive in assuming that resetting language
>> settings in Windows would do anything to the buttons - they of course
>> sell
>> multilanguage support nowadays, and I seem to have a one-language-only
>> version.
>>
>> I think that I can live with option 1). If users understand their Windows
>> buttons, they will also understand the R buttons, and I can use my time
>> better than spending it on 2) and 3). (Of course, users of Rcmdr will
>> appreciate that buttons and messages match!)
>>
>> Regarding msgcat vs. R-internal, I only resorted to msgcat because I
>> found
>> it easier to find out how to use it. I think I will replace the ilab
>> function in my toy example by a gettext version as soon as I find out how
>> to
>> do that (I suppose I can take that from the .onLoad function in Rcmdr).
>> However, I cannot check that it works before I have packaged my package,
>> can
>> I ? That's a disadvantage of the R-internal approach vs. the msgcat
>> approach
>> at the stage I am currently in.
>>
>> By the way, do you know why tcltk2 causes the two commands below to stop
>> functioning?
>> tcl("::msgcat::mcload","C:/testdirectory")
>> ilab <- function(lab)
>> tclvalue(tcl("namespace","eval","::tcl::minidummy","::msgcat::mc",.Tcl.args(l
>> ab)))
>>
>> Regards, Ulrike
>>
>>
>>
>> Philippe Grosjean wrote:
>> >
>> > Hello Ulrike,
>> >
>> > I think that the reason why default buttons are not translated is
>> > because they are managed by Windows. You have no control on their text.
>> > Running on a Windows in English, you got those buttons in English,
>> > Windows in German -> buttons in German, etc...
>> > So, three options from there:
>> >
>> > 1) You just assume that the end-users want the GUI in the same language
>> > as Windows,... or accept to have default buttons in Window's language
>> if
>> > they switch to another internationalisation,
>> >
>> > 2) Do the same as in R commander: rewrite the dialog boxes so that they
>> > don't use default Windows buttons (almost impossible for file
>> > open/close, dir choose, etc. dialog boxes)!
>> >
>> > 3) Use AutoIt or AutoHotKey to change the default buttons messages
>> (with
>> > lots of sweat, you can compile a satellite program to do so),... or
>> with
>> > even more time and effort, compile a C function in R that calls the
>> > right API to change default buttons' messages in your dialog boxes.
>> >
>> > Sorry that I cannot give you a better solution...
>> >
>> > Oh yes, regarding translation of Tcl/Tk messages from within R, I
>> really
>> > believe that translating these messages using the R mechanism instead
>> of
>> > msgcat in Tcl is much better. That way, you centralize all translations
>> > (R functions and GUI elements) in a single translation file. It is the
>> > approach used by R Commander, by the way. So, you got inspiration from
>> > there for your own code.
>> > Best,
>> >
>> > Philippe
>> > ..............................................<°}))><........
>> > ) ) ) ) )
>> > ( ( ( ( ( Prof. Philippe Grosjean
>> > ) ) ) ) )
>> > ( ( ( ( ( Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
>> > ) ) ) ) ) Mons-Hainaut University, Belgium
>> > ( ( ( ( (
>> > ..............................................................
>> >
>> > Ulrike Groemping wrote:
>> >> Dear R-SIG-GUIs,
>> >>
>> >> documentation of getLanguage / setLanguage in tcltk2 pointed me
>> towards
>> >> the
>> >> msgcat package in Tcl/Tk, and I used it for internationalizing my GUI
>> >> entries - trying to avoid having to write individual tools like
>> >> RcmdrTkmessagebox etc. I am an absolute Tcl/Tk beginner and still
>> looking
>> >> for the final strategy to do a larger GUI project in, currently
>> working
>> >> on
>> >> Windows with R 2.8.0 or R 2.7.1 (behave identical). And one important
>> >> aspect
>> >> is internationalization.
>> >>
>> >> I have now managed to program my draft and not yet functional GUI in
>> >> English
>> >> and show it in German by using an msg file with msgcat. On my
>> computer,
>> >> everything shows well in German. Then I got the idea that it would be
>> >> nice
>> >> to show an msgcat example in the help for getLanguage/setLanguage, and
>> I
>> >> prepared a toy example for sending to Philippe (cf. below). However,
>> >> while
>> >> changing the language does change most messages, it does not work with
>> >> built-in buttons - these remain German on my machine, even if I
>> restart
>> >> my
>> >> computer after changing system settings for all language aspects I
>> could
>> >> find on my computer from German to English.
>> >>
>> >> I remember having read something like that from John, when he started
>> >> internationalizing Rcmdr, but I had thought it would be long solved by
>> >> now.
>> >> Since internationalization appears to work at installation time
>> >> (otherwise
>> >> my buttons wouldn't be in German), and since there are many tcltk
>> message
>> >> files in the Tcl directory, it looks to me - as a possibly rather
>> naive
>> >> tcltk novice - that one would just have to find a way to reset some
>> >> environment variable or otherwise direct tcltk to look in the right
>> >> places.
>> >>
>> >> Any thoughts on that ?
>> >>
>> >> Regards, Ulrike
>> >>
>> >> ####### the toy example follows
>> >> require(tcltk)
>> >> ### the following two lines must be executed BEFORE loading tcltk2
>> >> ### otherwise they do not work !!!
>> >> tcl("::msgcat::mcload","C:/testdirectory")
>> >> ilab <- function(lab)
>> >>
>> tclvalue(tcl("namespace","eval","::tcl::minidummy","::msgcat::mc",.Tcl.args(l
>> ab)))
>> >>
>> >> ## mini example of German tcl message file
>> >> ## has to be saved under name de.msg
>> >> ## in the testdirectory given above
>> >> ## without the comment character in lines below
>> >> ## (it is important to avoid line breaks within individual mset
>> entries)
>> >> #namespace eval ::tcl::minidummy {
>> >> # ::msgcat::mcset de "If you choose Yes, all unsaved inputs will be
>> >> lost."
>> >> "Wenn Sie Ja wählen, gehen alle noch nicht gespeicherten Eingaben
>> >> verloren."
>> >> # ::msgcat::mcset de "Really Exit WITHOUT Save ?" "Wirklich OHNE
>> >> Speichern Beenden ?"
>> >> # ::msgcat::mcset de "Yes pressed" "Ja gedrückt"
>> >> # ::msgcat::mcset de "No pressed" "Nein gedrückt"
>> >> #}
>> >>
>> >> imsgboxtest <- function(){
>> >> td <- tclvalue(tkmessageBox(message=ilab("If you choose Yes, all
>> unsaved
>> >> inputs will be lost."),
>> >> title=ilab("Really Exit WITHOUT Save
>> >> ?"),type="yesno",default="yes",icon="question"))
>> >> if (td == "yes") cat(paste(ilab("Yes pressed"),"\n")) else
>> >> cat(paste(ilab("No pressed"),"\n"))
>> >> }
>> >> imsgboxtest()
>> >>
>> >> require(tcltk2) ## ruins functionality of the load and function
>> >> definition
>> >> above
>> >> ## if loaded too early!
>> >> oldlang <- getLanguage()
>> >> if (oldlang != "") {
>> >> # Switch to English and test a command that issues a warning
>> >> if (setLanguage("en_US")) imsgboxtest()
>> >> # Switch to French and test a command that issues a warning
>> >> if (setLanguage("fr_FR")) imsgboxtest()
>> >> # Switch to German and test a command that issues a warning
>> >> if (setLanguage("de_DE")) imsgboxtest()
>> >> # Restore previous language
>> >> setLanguage(oldlang)
>> >> }
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > ..............................................<°}))><........
>> > ) ) ) ) )
>> > ( ( ( ( ( Prof. Philippe Grosjean
>> > ) ) ) ) )
>> > ( ( ( ( ( Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
>> > ) ) ) ) ) Mons-Hainaut University, Belgium
>> > ( ( ( ( (
>> > ..............................................................
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > R-SIG-GUI mailing list
>> > R-SIG-GUI at stat.math.ethz.ch
>> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-gui
>> >
>> >
>>
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>>
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