Ultan,
At 11:16pm -0800 99-12-30, Ultan wrote:
>
>What is the best method for translating Apps? Can anyone tell me about
>the overlay concept? Does this still require the use of Constructor to
>edit the resources or is there another utility?
>
>U
At 10:56pm -0800 00-01-05, Scott replied:
>
>What they announced at PalmSource was that basically an overlay is a bundle
>of resources (forms, menus, etc) which needs to be edited by the translation
>people using an upcoming version of Constructor. There was also some
>mention (memory fuzzy) about adding a text-only resource language, but I
>don't think that was in the immediate plans.
>
>(This is the point where Ken Kruger usually jumps in... :-)
>
>- -slj-
Well, OK...
1. There is an upcoming version of Constructor that edits PRCs, in
addition to MacOS-format resource files. Editing the PRC would be the
easiest way to localize an application. Don't ask me when it's
actually going to be available.
2. Overlays provide a way for you to localize an application without
directly modifying it. The base app stays untouched, while the
overlay provides the localized data. As Scott mentioned, an overlay
is a resource DB which contains translated versions of the
localizable resources for the base app.
3. There is an upcoming tool (maybe already released by Palm?) that
will extract resources from a base PRC and create an overlay DB,
which you could then localize using the version of Constructor
mentioned in #1 above.
4. You can also do the localization via Poser, by using the RsrcEdit
application (on-board resource editor) from IndiVideo
(http://www.individeo.net).
5. If anybody really needs to create overlays now, then I can send
you a simple PalmOS application (Overlayer) that will extract
localizable resources from a PRC (on the device) and create an
overlay, which can then be localized using RsrcEdit and exported to
the desktop from Poser.
6. All of these approaches assume that you're localizing the built
application, which means that the localizer, not the developer,
creates the localized version. If the developer wants to be able to
build a localized app, then they need to get the localized data in a
buildable format, which (on CodeWarrior, at least) means that they'll
need to send you the original MacOS-format resource files, which you
then localize using ResEdit, Constructor, or Resorcerer, after which
they get sent back to the developer for incorporation into a
subsequent build.
7. Note that there is some support (improved in the 3.5 SDK) for
building localized versions of apps for both the Simulator and the
device. The approach is to put localized copies of the resource files
in a sub-folder with a specific name - for example, if you had your
resource files in a :Rsc: folder inside of your project folder, then
you'd put the French localizations in a :Rsc:Localized:frFR: folder,
specify the French locale prefix file for the CodeWarrior project,
and everything will get built using the French localized data.
-- Ken
Ken Krugler
TransPac Software, Inc.
<http://www.transpac.com>
+1 530-470-9200 (direct) +1 408-261-7550 (main)
