Notes on translating
====================

In short
--------

Apply the following steps (in the IEP logger shell):
  
  * Run lupdate() to update .tr files
  * Translators run linguist(TheirLanguage) to launch Qt linguist 
  * Translators write translations (stored in one .tr file per language)
  * Translators send modified version of .tr file back to us
  * Run lrelease()

The lupdate tool parses the source code of the files specified 
in iep.pro and detects usages of any "translate()" function call.


For translaters
---------------

We send translaters a .tr file, which they translate using Qt linguist
and then send back to us.


About tooltips
--------------

I like tooltips. And I think its best to specify them in the same string
as the text/label that they apply to. In IEP we use the convention that
a translation string can contain tooltips by writing three colons followed
by the tooltip text: ``"This is a label ::: This is the tooltip text"``

The iep.translate function returns a string object that contains only
the label text, but which has an attribute called "tt" that contains
the tooltip text (or an empty string).

In this way, in places where you do not need a tooltip, things behave as
normal. In cases where you need a tooltip, things are now easier (especially
for the translater).


From the PyQt website
---------------------

  * The programmer uses pylupdate4 to create or update a .ts translation 
    file for each language that the application is to be translated into. 
    A .ts file is an XML file that contains the strings to be translated 
    and the corresponding translations that have already been made. 
    pylupdate4 can be run any number of times during development to update 
    the .ts files with the latest strings for translation.
  * The translator uses Qt Linguist to update the .ts files with translations 
    of the strings. 
  * The release manager then uses Qt’s lrelease utility to 
    convert the .ts files to .qm files which are compact binary equivalents 
    used by the application. If an application cannot find an appropriate .qm 
    file, or a particular string hasn’t been translated, then the strings used 
    in the original source code are used instead.