
This file contains some remarks that may be of use to people undertaking
to translate TeraDesk to languages other than English.



General remarks
---------------

- Resource files of TeraDesk are maintained using Interface V2.33 (2.34?)

- After modifying the resource file it is good to compare its structure
  with the original file. 'Compare RSCs' function in Interface can be used.
  All items should be checked, except object states, texts, and (maybe)
  sizes and positions.

- Usually, changes in the resource file between subsequent versions are
  small and an existing translated previous version of the resource file
  can be carefully updated. There is no need to start each time from scratch. See next section.

- If translated texts do not fit into available spaces in the dialogs, alerts
  or the menu, the translator should use his imagination to find the best 
  possible solution for the problem- items can be moved within the dialogs,
  words or phrases that are not literal translations can be used, etc.
 

Changes in V3.83 relative to previous version
---------------------------------------------

- Texts in trees MESHOWIF, AAPNFND, APRGNFND, AFMTERR, AERACC and AREMICNS 
  slightly changed for the purpose of better formatting.

- Trees MNOROOT and RESERVE2 deleted.

- Trees SNFILES, SFILES and SMULTI renamed to TNFILES, TFILES and TMULTI,
  respectively (in fact this does not affect the resource file itself, but
  only DESKTOP.RSD and DESKTOP.H).

- String-type object trees TFIALL and TFIMORE added (in that order).

- Text on button FLALL in fileinfo dialog changed to a single "t".


Naming of object trees
----------------------

Names of dialog-type object trees do not follow any particular rule, except
that they are associative to the purpose of the dialog. However, with some
unfortunate exceptions, other object trees are mostly named as follows:

DT* - dialog titles texts (for dialogs where titles are not constant)
M*  - various texts, mostly messages in error alerts
T*  - some of these are also for alerts, other are strings that
      appear in dialogs.
FS* - file selector titles
P*  - program flags descriptions
A*  - alerts


About the menu
--------------

- Care should be taken to leave adequate space for keyboard shortcuts in
  each menu item (4 characters). This space is marked by underline 
  characters as ____

- If possible, it should be tested whether the translated menu fits into
  the screen width in ST-low resolution. TeraDesk is supposed to work in
  all screen resolutions starting from 320x200 (e.g. ST-low).
  

About dialog-type object trees
------------------------------

- Dialog sizes can be changed if necessary, but should not exceed 312 pixels
  horizontally by 320 pixels vertically. This is the largest dialog size 
  that fits in the lowest possible screen resolution (320x200) that TeraDesk
  can handle.

- Sizes (widths) of dialog titles should not be changed unless dialog widths
  are changed, even if texts of translated titles have lengths different
  from English titles. 

- Some texts in the INFOBOX dialog (e.g. program version and date of 
  compilation) are set in the code of the program.

- There are hidden items in dialogs. Visibility of such items should not
  be changed. A program like RSCTRAN can be used to extract all texts in 
  order to check whether all hidden items have been found and translated.

- There are overlapping (invisible) box-type objects in some dialogs. Care
  should be taken not to change the order of these objects and the structure
  of the resource file when editing them (i.e. objects covering other objects
  should -not- be "adopted as children").

- Scrolled editable text fields (objects with extended type 13) can be
  modified in length if convenient, because TeraDesk uses them in such a way
  that it is safe to do so. However, two-characters free spaces should always
  be left in dialog area both on the left and on the on the right of these
  objects, because, if a text longer than field length is contained in the
  object, visible text is bracketed between a pair of "< >" characters that
  appears on the left and on the right of the object. 


About button-type objects
-------------------------

- TeraDesk uses higher ob_state bits in button objects to mark hotkeys.
  The "[" character is not recognized for such purpose in button texts.

- Checkbox-button and radio-button objects appearing in groups should be
  set to equal widths, appropriate for the longest button text to fit in.
  In some AESes, when these objects are set to disabled state,  bounding 
  rectangles are visible and they look ugly if not set to equal widths. 


Some specific free-string object trees
--------------------------------------

- Strings FLINAME to FOINAME contain names of essential icons that should
  always exist in the icons recource files used by TeraDesk. These strings
  should not be translated unless one wants also to translate icon names 
  in the icons resource files. 

- String TLINKTO contains default text that is prepended to file/folder 
  name when a symbolic link to that object is made. It should contain only
  characters that are legal in file/folder names.

- Strings PFFLOAD to PPSHARE contain descriptions of program header flags
  that appear in the Info... dialog when a program file is shown. It is
  suggested that these strings are not translated or, if they are, that
  the translated texts be not longer than original ones.

- String TBYTES appears in the name-conflict dialog when displaying file
  sizes. It should contain a trailing space.

- Strings TFNVALID and TFNTMPLT contain the validation and the template
  string, respectively, for those FTEXT-type dialog fields that are switched
  to 8+3 filename format in single-TOS when appropriate. They should not be
  modified.

- String CANCTXT contains all words that appear on Cancel or Abort buttons
  in TeraDesk dialogs. Words should be enclosed between "|" characters

- String TDONTEDI contains an informational text that is written into each
  configuration file. It must begin with a ";"

- String TNFILES should be exactly as long as the non-editable beginning
  of the template in the FTEXT-type object FLFILES in the FILEINFO dialog.

- Strings TFIALL and TFIMORE are button texts that alternatively appear
  on the leftmost button in the Info... dialog. They must fit into button
  size, and they will share the same hotkey assignment (e.g. the first 
  characters of both words).

- Some strings are divided into lines by "|" characters. They appear in
  alerts. Number of divisions in any string should not be increased, and 
  the length of any line should not be more than 31 characters.
 
