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Posted by: Hauke Hagenhoff Oct 28 2003, 10:38 AM

Hi!

Will there really ever be a German version of PMView 3.x/Pro ?
I got my doubts...

Bye

Hauke

Posted by: Peter Oct 28 2003, 08:03 PM

The program is already translated and so are the help files.

Unfortunately the 150-page reference manual remains to be translated. The German version will be available with the next release, however possibly with only the english reference manual...´

Thanks,

Posted by: Per A Johansson Nov 28 2003, 06:51 AM

As I understand, there are different applications for different languages. Wouldn't it be easier to have one localisable application, so people could help submit translations? I could to sv_se and Peter could do sv_fi for instance

Posted by: Peter Dec 3 2003, 08:35 AM

The problem is that the German translator was overwhelmed with the amount of work needed for the v3.0 translation.

The German version will be out very soon now - probably in a few days. (The text is currently transferred from the OS/2 IPF help format to WinHelp for the Windows version).

Using HTML help would simplify things a lot, but OS/2 users start shouting "NO!!!" as soon as I even mention the word HTML... That's why we have decided to stay with two different help formats for now (OS/2 IPF and Windows WinHelp) - which means double the work...

I have planned to do a Swedish version (since Swedish is my mother tongue). Unfortunately I can't do a Finnish version, because I don't know Finnish well enough to do that.

If you would like to do the Swedish version, please contact me at peter@pmview.com and I'd be happy to send you the files needed for the translation.

Of course, if somebody would like to do a Finnish translation (or any other language), please contact me and I'd be happy to send you the files.

Thanks,



Edited By Peter on 1070458805

Posted by: Per A Johansson Dec 13 2003, 08:38 AM

I was thinking more about menues and stuff that are incorporated in the exe file now as I understand it - I don't see any resource files. An example is the OS/2 standard "E" editor that turns into Swedish on my desktop.

I don't like HTML help either, at least as it's implemented in Windows, and even worser in VisualAge C++. On the contrary, the NewView app is great with the IPF files, so I certainly prefer that format.

I'm not sure if I could do a translation, since it's time-consuming, but I sent a message to the Swedish OS/2 User Group about your offer. At least one member there seems happy to do translations.

Actually, "sv_fi" means "Finland Swedish" just like "en_gb" means "Great Britain English". It's selectable in Lotus Word Pro, although "sv_se" is what I use.

Posted by: Peter Dec 13 2003, 01:51 PM

Everything is in resources. The resources are bound to the .EXE file (to reduce the number of files and speed up loading). You will need a resource extractor to extract them. This goes for both the OS/2 and Windows version. Also note that the OS/2 version is LXLite:ed (packed), so you will need to unpack it in order to get to the resources.

Translating the resources is the "easy" part. The really big work to translate is the help files and the PDF files.

FWIW, I don't think that "Finland Swedish" is any different from "Sweden Swedish". At least there is no need to make two diferent versions.

Thanks,

Posted by: Peter Dec 14 2003, 06:48 PM

BTW, the HTML help would not be like the awful IBM help. It would be like this:

http://www.pmview.com/help/pmview.htm

Thanks,

Posted by: Thorolf Dec 15 2003, 07:37 PM

urg - it looks like windows help and as OS/2-user I really would cry!

The problem with a HTML-help on OS/2 is, that there is not default-browser integratet in the system that is almost running and killing ressources like the IE!

And therefor it would last too long until the help is opened and it would open in a big extra window on the screen - not very nice for a help that should be program-integrated!

Thorolf



Edited By Thorolf on 1071535138

Posted by: 77-1073418432 Jan 6 2004, 03:16 PM

But how often do you really need the help function? It's good to have a decent help available, but the html version would do the job as well.

And if it saves Peter and all other possible translaters a lot of work and we get new versions faster, that would really argue for switching to the html help IMO.


Manfred

Posted by: Peter Jan 7 2004, 09:19 AM

It turns out that it is not a good idea after all. Since OS/2 does not "ship" with a decent browser installed by default, it will just mean a lot of support headache to have HTML help in the OS/2 version. The IPF help will have to stay for now.

However, since Microsoft favors HTML Help in front of the obsolete WinHelp, we will switch to HTML Help in the Windows version of v3.10. This reduces the need for four files (PMVIEW.CNT, PMVIEW.HLP, ROBOEX32.DLL, and the shared DLL INETWH32.DLL will no longer be required) to one single file PMVIEW.CHM. The PMView package will be smaller and require fewer files - always a good thing!

Thanks,