GRASS-Wiki:Language policy

You want to translate pages of this Wiki? Great, read on! This page describes the current multi-lingual policy on GRASS-Wiki. All pages get auto-indexed after a few minutes and the language link appears on the left in the menu.

Page title

The English version of our front page is located at GRASS-Wiki. Translated versions are located at GRASS-Wiki/code, where code is the language code (e.g. GRASS-Wiki/cs for Czech language). It is important to follow the language codes rules in order to enable Mediawiki to auto-index the translation (for language codes, see below).

When you start translating a page to a new language, its name must follow this convention:

Original name/code

for example, a page with the Czech translation of GRASS Community will be called "GRASS Community/cs", Indonesian is "GRASS Community/id", for German it becomes "GRASS Community/de" etc.

Category Languages/code

Translated pages are collected based on category "Languages/code", see e.g. list of pages translated to Czech.

The rule is: non-English pages must contain at bottom

[[Category:Languages/code]]

i.e. for Czech it is Category:Languages/cs, German Category:Languages/de, etc.

Template "Trans"

We have the template Trans for master pages which are undergoing the process of translation. Please add it if you don't complete the translation so that you/others can easily find it back:

{{Trans|Russian|English}}

This template is to be removed when the translation of the page is finished.

Language codes

Throughout the GRASS-Wiki, you should use the language codes specified by the MediaWiki software when creating language-specific content (see Names.php for the full and up-to-date list).

Please also bear the following in mind (but this won't apply to the majority of languages!):

• If the language code is not found in Names.php then we should not host help pages in that language (since the indexing mechanism would fail)

• If you want to add a language that is not present in Mediawiki, first get it added to the software (by making a request at Bugzilla) and only add pages here once the changes have been accepted and the GRASS Wiki been updated accordingly.

• If MediaWiki uses the 'incorrect' code for a language then you should also (for consistency) use that incorrect code here. If you think a code is incorrect you should discuss it on Bugzilla, and if this results in it being changed we will move the pages to match.

• Note that some language codes in Names.php are now deprecated (e.g. zh-yue has been replaced with yue). In these cases only the most recent code should be used.

Detailed procedure

If you want to translate a Wiki page, then:

1. Generate a new page with language suffix, e.g. /de. For example, to generate the page http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Help_with_3D/de, just enter this URL in your browser. The page won't exist yet and you can open it for editing. See also Starting a new page.
2. copy the Wiki-Code of the (english) original page into the new page (use "editing" in the original page to see it). In this example, copy the Wiki code from http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Help_with_3D into http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Help_with_3D/de
3. Add the language category at page bottom, e.g. [[Category:Languages/de]], then start translating. If you don't manage to finish the translation, add the "work in progress" template at page top ({{Trans|Deutsch|English}}). This {{Trans|Deutsch|English}} will generate an entry

   This page is in progress of translating to Deutsch from English

   in the page to notify the potential readers.
4. If this procedure is yet unclear, please leave a comment in the discussion page.

Enjoy and happy translating :)