DOC HOME SITE MAP MAN PAGES GNU INFO SEARCH
 

(gettext.info.gz) Obsolete Entries

Info Catalog (gettext.info.gz) Untranslated Entries (gettext.info.gz) PO Mode (gettext.info.gz) Modifying Translations
 
 8.3.8 Obsolete Entries
 ----------------------
 
 By "obsolete" PO file entries, we mean those entries which are
 commented out, usually by `msgmerge' when it found that the translation
 is not needed anymore by the package being localized.
 
    The usual commands moving from entry to entry consider obsolete
 entries on the same level as active entries.  Obsolete entries are
 easily recognizable by the fact that all their lines start with `#',
 even those lines containing `msgid' or `msgstr'.
 
    Commands exist for emptying the translation or reinitializing it to
 the original untranslated string.  Commands interfacing with the kill
 ring may force some previously saved text into the translation.  The
 user may interactively edit the translation.  All these commands may
 apply to obsolete entries, carefully leaving the entry obsolete after
 the fact.
 
    Moreover, some commands are more specifically related to obsolete
 entry processing.
 
 `o'
      Find the next obsolete entry (`po-next-obsolete-entry').
 
 `O'
      Find the previous obsolete entry (`po-previous-obsolete-entry').
 
 `<DEL>'
      Make an active entry obsolete, or zap out an obsolete entry
      (`po-fade-out-entry').
 
 
    The commands `o' (`po-next-obsolete-entry') and `O'
 (`po-previous-obsolete-entry') move forwards or backwards, chasing for
 an obsolete entry.  If none is found, the search is extended and wraps
 around in the PO file buffer.
 
    PO mode does not provide ways for un-commenting an obsolete entry
 and making it active, because this would reintroduce an original
 untranslated string which does not correspond to any marked string in
 the program sources.  This goes with the philosophy of never
 introducing useless `msgid' values.
 
    However, it is possible to comment out an active entry, so making it
 obsolete.  GNU `gettext' utilities will later react to the
 disappearance of a translation by using the untranslated string.  The
 command `<DEL>' (`po-fade-out-entry') pushes the current entry a little
 further towards annihilation.  If the entry is active (it is a
 translated entry), then it is first made fuzzy.  If it is already fuzzy,
 then the entry is merely commented out, with confirmation.  If the entry
 is already obsolete, then it is completely deleted from the PO file.
 It is easy to recycle the translation so deleted into some other PO file
 entry, usually one which is untranslated.   Modifying
 Translations.
 
    Here is a quite interesting problem to solve for later development of
 PO mode, for those nights you are not sleepy.  The idea would be that
 PO mode might become bright enough, one of these days, to make good
 guesses at retrieving the most probable candidate, among all obsolete
 entries, for initializing the translation of a newly appeared string.
 I think it might be a quite hard problem to do this algorithmically, as
 we have to develop good and efficient measures of string similarity.
 Right now, PO mode completely lets the decision to the translator, when
 the time comes to find the adequate obsolete translation, it merely
 tries to provide handy tools for helping her to do so.
 
Info Catalog (gettext.info.gz) Untranslated Entries (gettext.info.gz) PO Mode (gettext.info.gz) Modifying Translations
automatically generated byinfo2html