planetblupi/README.translators.md

# How to translate Planet Blupi

## The interface

All texts in the interface are using gettext PO files format. The files are
located in the `resources/po/` directory in the sources. For adding a new
translation, open the `resources/po/planetblupi.pot` file with an editor like
[poedit][1] for example. It can be a bit difficult to understand the context
without playing with your translations but there is a trick. Once you are ready
to test your translations, save your `.po` file and the corresponding `.mo`
file. Rename the `.mo` file to `planetblupi.mo`. Go to the directory where is
installed Planet Blupi and look at (for replacing the french translation by
yours for example) `share/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/` and put your `.mo` file in
this directory. You can replace an other lang if you like.

> Under Windows OS, you should find the french translations in
> `C:\Program Files\Planet Blupi\share\locale\fr\LC_MESSAGES\`.  
> With macOS it's possible to open the `Planet Blupi.app` and update the file
> directly in the `.app`. But note that it breaks the application signature. To
> start the game, maybe it's necessary to open via the context menu for by
> passing the macOS security.  
> For Linux you must unpack the AppImage file somewhere for changing the files.

Then start the game, the interface will use your new translation if you select
"Français" in the global settings screen.

If you see some strange characters, like a square, then contact me and I will
add the necessary glyphs for your language. Planet Blupi is not using a real
font but just sprites with a limited range of characters.

One text is hard-coded in the source code. It's the text for selecting the
language in the global settings screen (it's just the lang's name). Please,
don't forget to provide this one.

```c
    if (locale == "en")
      lang = "English";
    else if (locale == "en_US")
      lang = "American english";
    else if (locale == "fr")
      lang = "Français";
    else if (locale == "de")
      lang = "Deutsch";
    else if (locale == "it")
      lang = "Italiano";
    else if (locale == "pl")
      lang = "Polski";
    else if (locale == "tr")
      lang = "Türkçe";
    else if (locale == "pt")
      lang = "Português";
    else if (locale == "he")
      lang = "עברית";
```

## The missions

The missions are located in the `resources/data/` directory. Open the
`en/stories.blp` with a text editor like Notepad++, Visual Studio Code, Sublime
Text, etc, ... Ensure to work in UTF-8. Like for the interface, you can replace
for example the french file by yours in the `share/planetblupi/data/fr/`
directory.

## Some rules

1. The "Planet Blupi" title must not be translated excepted if your language is
   not using Latin-1 like Hebrew, Korean and Chinese for example.
2. If you plan to translate in Korean, ask me for details because I already have
   most translations but I must (still) draw all glyphs.
3. Like for the Hebrew translations; I can enable the reversed game layout
   (right to left reading) for your translation if necessary.

## The voices

It's not mandatory but it's very appreciate if you can provide the Blupi voices;
check this [README][2]. And if you don't know how to filter the sound in order
to produce a voice with an higher ton (like Blupi); contact me and I will help
you.

[1]: https://poedit.net/
[2]: README.voices.md