From 4.619 the MAPMAKE program will support printing maps in a simplified version of the MAPPOST format that produces plain text files that can be translated into other languages without the need for DP4 knowledge. The MAPPOST program will have an option to post these files back and will create maps in the new language combining the text from the translation with the other properties of the base map.
The facility is used as follows:
If the mapset already has maps defined for more than one language, you may select which of these languages you want to use as the base for the translation by setting the language number to the required value. This can be done via the Set Language option on the initial MAPMAKE menu.
In each case, in the Map Printing dialog,
in the Print Format field,
choose Translator Format.
Enable the "Include Help Messages" option unless you specifically do not want to translate these.
In the standard DP4 Print dialog, define an output file to receive the data.
Using an editor program which can process plain text files, edit the file which was output in the phase above. Replace each item of text in the initial language with text in the new language. Make sure that you only alter text in help messages or between quotes for controls. Be careful not to translate the keywords used by MAPPOST such as Static,Button,Edit etc.
At the start of the file is a line which begins #language.
This will be emitted with the value unset.
This must be changed to be the number of the DP4 language
for which the translation is being made.
Do not change the line marked #translation.
As the translation file is processed,
for each map specified,
MAPPOST accesses the current map which is defined for the base language
(defined by the #translation line)
and creates a version of that map for the new language
(defined by the #language line).
No map properties are taken from the translation file.
The new map will use the properties of the base map, including size.
For each field within the base language map, MAPPOST expects to find a corresponding field in the translation file.
If a field is in the base map and not in the translation file, a warning message will appear and that field will appear in the translated map with the base text.
If a field is found in the translation file which does not exist in the base map, a warning message will appear and this translated field will be discarded by MAPPOST and not be put in the new map.
MAPPOST creates the translated version of the map by combining the properties of the maps and controls from the base language with the text in the new language. If you make changes to the base language map you will need to repeat the translation process.
The sizes and positions of all the controls in the translated map are the same as in the base language. Therefore you should allow additional space when designing maps that are to be translated. It is suggested that you allow at least 100% extra for controls whose text consists of a short single word, 50-70% extra for short single words, and 30% extra for longer phrases. In future an option may be provided to report on controls that are not large enough for the text they contain.
The font, and therefore the character set, for the translated map is assumed to be the same as in the base language. This may well cause problems when translating between languages that typically use different character sets. In future a facility to automatically translate fonts into an appropriate character set will be provided.
These are the 4.619 released versions (with the patch for k4000043)