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- *mlang.txt* For Vim version 6.0. Last change: 2001 Sep 04
-
-
- VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
-
-
- Multi-language features *multilang* *multi-lang*
-
- This is about using messages and menus in various languages. For editing
- multi-byte text see |multibyte|.
-
- The basics are explained in the user manual: |usr_45.txt|.
-
- 1. Messages |multilang-messages|
- 2. Menus |multilang-menus|
- 3. Scripts |multilang-scripts|
-
- {Vi does not have any of these features}
- {not available when compiled without the |+multi_lang| feature}
-
- ==============================================================================
- 1. Messages *multilang-messages*
-
- Vim picks up the locale from the environment. In most cases this means Vim
- will use the language that you prefer, unless it's not available.
-
- To see a list of supported locale names on your system, look in one of these
- directories (for Unix):
- /usr/lib/locale ~
- /usr/share/locale ~
- Unfortunately, upper/lowercase differences matter. Also watch out for the
- use of "-" and "_".
-
- *:lan* *:lang* *:language* *E197*
- :lan[guage]
- :lan[guage] mes[sages]
- :lan[guage] cty[pe]
- :lan[guage] tim[e]
- Print the current language (aka locale).
- With the "messages" argument the language used for
- messages is printed. Technical: LC_MESSAGES.
- With the "ctype" argument the language used for
- character encoding is printed. Technical: LC_CTYPE.
- With the "time" argument the language used for
- strftime() is printed. Technical: LC_TIME.
- Without argument all parts of the locale are printed
- (this is system dependend).
- The current language can also be obtained with the
- |v:lang|, |v:ctype| and |v:lc_time| variables.
-
- :lan[guage] {name}
- :lan[guage] mes[sages] {name}
- :lan[guage] cty[pe] {name}
- :lan[guage] tim[e] {name}
- Set the current language (aka locale) to {name}.
- The locale {name} must be a valid locale on your
- system. Some systems accept aliases like "en" or
- "en_US", but some only accept the full specification
- like "en_US.ISO_8859-1".
- With the "messages" argument the language used for
- messages is set. This can be different when you want,
- for example, English messages while editing Japanese
- text. This sets $LC_MESSAGES.
- With the "ctype" argument the language used for
- character encoding is set. This affects the libraries
- that Vim was linked with. It's unusual to set this to
- a different value from 'encoding'. This sets
- $LC_CTYPE.
- With the "time" argument the language used for time
- and date messages is set. This affects strftime().
- This sets $LC_TIME.
- Without an argument both are set, and additionally
- $LANG is set.
- This will make a difference for items that depend on
- the language (some messages, time and date format).
- Not fully supported on all systems
- If this fails there will be an error message. If it
- succeeds there is no message. Example: >
- :language
- Current language: C
- :language de_DE.ISO_8859-1
- :language mes
- Current messages language: de_DE.ISO_8859-1
- :lang mes en
- <
-
- MS-WINDOWS MESSAGE TRANSLATIONS *win32-gettext*
-
- If you used the self-installing .exe file, message translations should work
- already. Otherwise get the libintl.dll file if you don't have it yet:
-
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/gettext
-
- This also contains tools xgettext, msgformat and others.
-
- libintl.dll should be placed in same directory with (g)vim.exe, or some
- place where PATH environment value describe. Message files (vim.mo)
- have to be placed in "$VIMRUNTIME/lang/xx/LC_MESSAGES", where "xx" is the
- abbreviation of the language (mostly two letters).
-
- If you write your own translations you need to generate the .po file and
- convert it to a .mo file. You need to get the source distribution and read
- the file "src/po/README.txt".
-
- To overrule the automatic choice of the language, set the $LANG variable to
- the language of your choice. use "en" to disable translations. >
-
- :let $LANG = 'ja'
-
- (text for Windows by Muraoka Taro)
-
- ==============================================================================
- 2. Menus *multilang-menus*
-
- See |45.2| for the basics.
-
- Note that if changes have been made to the menus after the translation was
- done, some of the menus may be shown in English. Please try contacting the
- maintainer of the translation and ask him to update it. You can find the
- name and e-mail address of the translator in
- "$VIMRUNTIME/lang/menu_<lang>.vim".
-
- To set the font (or fontset) to use for the menus, use the |:highlight|
- command. Example: >
-
- :highlight Menu font=k12,r12
-
-
- ALIAS LOCALE NAMES
-
- Unfortunately, the locale names are different on various systems, even though
- they are for the same language and encoding. If you do not get the menu
- translations you expected, check the output of this command: >
-
- echo v:lang
-
- Now check the "$VIMRUNTIME/lang" directory for menu translation files that use
- a similar language. A difference in a "-" being a "_" already causes a file
- not to be found! Another common difference to watch out for is "iso8859-1"
- versus "iso_8859-1". Fortunately Vim makes all names lowercase, thus you
- don't have to worry about case differences. Spaces are changed to
- underscores, to avoid having to escape them.
-
- If you find a menu translation file for your language with a different name,
- create a file in your own runtime directory to load that one. The name of
- that file could be: >
-
- ~/.vim/lang/menu_<v:lang>.vim
-
- Check the 'runtimepath' option for directories which are searched. In that
- file put a command to load the menu file with the other name: >
-
- runtime lang/menu_<other_lang>.vim
-
-
- TRANSLATING MENUS
-
- If you want to do your own translations, you can use the |:menutrans| command,
- explained below. It is recommended to put the translations for one language
- in a Vim script. For a language that has no translation yet, please consider
- becoming the maintainer and make your translations available to all Vim users.
- Send an e-mail to the Vim maintainer <maintainer@vim.org>.
-
- *:menut* *:menutrans* *:menutranslate*
- :menut[ranslate] clear
- Clear all menu translations.
-
- :menut[ranslate] {english} {mylang}
- Translate menu name {english} to {mylang}. All
- special characters like "&" and "<Tab>" need to be
- included. Spaces and dots need to be escaped with a
- backslash, just like in other |:menu| commands.
-
- See the $VIMRUNTIME/lang directory for examples.
-
- To try out your translations you first have to remove all menus. This is how
- you can do it without restarting Vim: >
- :source $VIMRUNTIME/delmenu.vim
- :source <your-new-menu-file>
- :source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim
-
- Each part of a menu path is translated separately. The result is that
- "Help.Overview" will be translated to "Hilfe.Überblick".
-
- ==============================================================================
- 3. Scripts *multilang-scripts*
-
- In Vim scripts you can use the |v:lang| variable to get the current language
- (locale). The default value is "C" or comes from the $LANG environment
- variable.
-
- The following example shows how this variable is used in a simple way, to make
- a message adapt to language preferences of the user, >
-
- :if v:lang =~ "de_DE"
- : echo "Guten Morgen"
- :else
- : echo "Good morning"
- :endif
- <
-
- vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
-