Special programs
Two special programs are needed for the translations and they should already be in the 3032 directory. These are:
LANGCOMP.EXE (3032 directory)
Program used for compiling the translation text file into a format usable by the 3032 software.
LANGSORT.EXE (3032 directory)
Program used to sort the translation files alphabetically.
How the translation system works
The 3032 software contains in its code a lot of ´hard-coded´ words or phrases such as LOAD, SAVE or LINK CONFIGURATIONS. The build-in routines that write these words to the screen contains a hook that checks if translation is selected and if this is the case it writes the translation to the screen instead of the original word (e.g. COLOR will be written as FARVE if Danish translation is selected).
The actual translations are created outside the 3032 software using a set of special programs.
Look at the printout of the USER.TXT file (or load it into the ASCII editor). The file contains a number of words and phrases from the 3032 software followed by a comma - please note that this file does not contain any translations, just the words from the 3032 software.
Now try the following to make a ´test´ translation:
- Make a backup of the USER.TXT file to a safe place (e.g. a diskette).
- Load the USER.TXT file into the DOS-editor, find the lines with the original words and add these "translations" after the lines:
COLOR,color
FOCUS,TOO LONG
GOBO,- GOBO -
LANGUAGE,Testing
MOVEMENT,THIS FITS - Exit the editor and run the translation compiler from the DOS command line by typing: LANGCOMP USER [Enter]
- The USER.TXT file is now translated into the format usable by the 3032. The translations are all placed in a file called USER.LNG. Now start the 3032 software (type ´manager´ from the 3032 directory) and enter the software setup module. Select the USER language option and note how the ´topbar´ changes between ´Testing´ and ´LANGUAGE´ when USER or US-UK translations are selected.
- Now select USER Translation and go to the SEQUENCE Module. The translations for COLOR,FOCUS,GOBO,MOVEMENT are now used instead of the original words. The translation for FOCUS (TOO LONG) stresses a very important point of this system: There is only a limited space for the translation so the size of the translation cannot exceed the size that is allocated to the button or field that carries the text - this is even more important when using a character set redefined to Chinese where the ´Words´ normally are quite large (at least the ones I tried to translate).
Editing the *.TXT Files
Going back to the USER.TXT file you will note that most lot of the words there has no translation next to them - the system will simply ignore Words without translation and use the original words. Also there will be words in the 3032 system that are not in the USER.TXT file (or other translation files) but these can just be inserted on a new line in the USER.TXT file - e.g. if the word COMPUTER was part of the 3032 software but not present in the translation file just create an empty line in the TXT file and insert:
COMPUTER,translation
Likewise, translations for words that are no longer in the 3032 system can be removed just by deleting the appropriate line.
IMPORTANT:
Please note that the first and last lines of the TXT file are required by the system - please do not touch them and make sure that the last line is EOF and that EOF is not present on other lines in the file.