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
.
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. ).
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. ) 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.