[GRASSLIST:3858] GRASS 5.7: i18N multilingual support implemented

[Markus Neteler]

Buongiorno, Salut, Hi, Guten Tag, Moin,
Haló, ??, ???????????, ...

To enable multilingual support in GRASS 5.7 I have 
implemented i18N support. Now we need translators...

The POT/PO/MO gettext files method is used as in GRASS 5.0.

What's already available for translation:
- parts of lib/gis/ are prepared
- r.colors' rules.c file (in 5.3) which is linked into 5.7 
  to illustrate how it works in a module.

Now:
- read grass57/locale/README for details (it's fairly simple)
- existing messages may be translated with kbabel or equivalent
  program
- generally all C files containing messages must be edited
  to add the _(...) macro and glocale.h include (explained
  in the file grass57/locale/README )
- all formattings and variables must be kept
- GRASS 5.7 must be configured with '--with-nls' and recompiled.


Now we need translators - needed skills: 
- usage of kbabel program (easy)
- optionally knowledge how to modify C files to implement the 
  required message string _(...) macros (medium)
  and ability to send diffs against CVS of the modified
  files.

Note that kbabel is able to import existing .po file
(files containing translated strings) to semi-automate the
translation. You may borrow then from other projects (check
their license first).

Even partial translation is possible as messages will be merged
into existing .po files for the various languages. Of course some
coordination is needed for each language.

The 5.7-CVS comes now with a few German messages to illustrate
how it works. It should be possible to use the existing 
Russian 5.0 translations and the new Japanese translations.

Cheers

 Markus Neteler