Extraction of strings with gettext technology ((p)info gettext)

How does it work? The developer, Hilaire, writes (notice the underscore)

      printf (_ ("\nMiss a filename to evaluate in --evaluate\n\n"));
	      

And the extractor prepares this pair of strings (the example PO file has already been translated).

	
	#: drgenius_main.cc:172
	#, c-format
	msgid ""
	"\n"
	"Miss a filename to evaluate in --evaluate\n"
	"\n"
	msgstr ""
	"\n"
	"Il manque un nom de fichier dans --evaluate\n"
	"\n"
	
	      

Normally the translator just has to fill in the msgstr —message string— with his translation.

	Before you teacher get too frightened I have to stress that this format was created to be read by programs, not by humans. We only have to use a human interface, in this case a translation tool.

Translators work with PO (Portable Object) files

Tools: PO editors kbabel, poedit (also available for Windows)

Reusability, sense 1: automatic updates. (1) After a new version you only have to translate the new sentences; (2) if a string has changed partially it is marked as fuzzy

Reusability, sense 2: translation memories (called compendia).