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Adapting the Programme to a Different Language

VIEWMOL has been written to take full advantage of the language independence of X windows. All programme messages, menus, dialog box texts etc. are stored outside of the programme in resource files. Therefore it is possible that different users can run the same VIEWMOL executable in different languages on the same computer. Currently, three languages are supported: English, German, and Russian gif. To adapt VIEWMOL to another language only the Xdefaults.<language> has to be translated. For a native speaker of the language this will take between 45 and 60 minutes.

The Xdefaults.<language> files provided with VIEWMOL have three sections. The first section is related to the installation of external support programmes, the second section contains default settings (see p. gif). The third section contains all language dependent messages and this is the only section which needs translation. To translate, translate everything right of the colon. The strings '%s', '%d', or '%f' mark the position of names or numbers which are filled in by the programme and must remain in the translated version at the appropriate position. After translation install the new Xdefaults.<language> file as described in the Installation section (cf. p. gif) and VIEWMOL will talk in your language. The author would appreciate to get a copy of the translated resource file for inclusion in the next public release.



Jörg-Rüdiger Hill
Sun Dec 8 14:15:56 PST 1996