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What is this

This is the documentation of the lang dictionaries (LGD and LLD) inside the lang folder.

Quick summary

  1. What does that folder contains?
  2. How can I contribute?
    1. How can I upgrade a translation?
    2. There is not my lang, how can I start?
    3. Adding the translations
    4. Escapable characters
    5. What about the level lang dictionaries?
  3. What about those nanorc file?
    1. How can I use it?
    2. What will it do?

What does that folder contains

It contains some .lgd files (for LanG Dictionary). Each of these files contains translations to integrate a language.

The only exception is the blank.lgd file that is only an empty file translation, containing all registered translations: if you use it, every localized string will be replaced by nothing.

It also contains some .lld files (for Level Lang Dictionary). Each of there files contains lores for a specific level.

It also contains a lgd.nanorc and lld.nanorc file, which is used with Nano (see What about those nanorc file?).

How can I contribute

You can contribute by adding or upgrading an other langage's integration.

How can I upgrade a translation

You can upgrade a translation by adding not-yet-supported strings or translating better some strings, then creating a pull request so I can see it.

To see how to add translations, see Adding the translations.

There is not my lang, how can I start

Thinking about the lang name, UID and fallback

Each lang has a lang name (soon displayed in the options menu), a lang UID (a Unique IDentity, used internally only) and an optional lang fallback.

A lang UID (internally just lang ID) is a unique way to refer to this lang. It is recommanded to follow the following: ll_CC, where ll is the two-lowercase-letters "general" lang ID (like en for english) and CC is the two-uppercase-letters language's country (like US for american english or GB for Great Britain's english).

A lang fallback is used when the lang doesn't have a translation. For instance, if the lang a has ig.map.sword and the lang b has a as fallback, but doesn't have a translation for ig.map.sword, it will use a's one.

By default, the fallback is the american english en_US lang. If you don't want any fallback, the fallback will be false without any " (like for the american english lang). Beware, if you remove the fallback, any unknown translaton will be replaced by the translation string (with dots and all, like ig.map.sword or options.difficulty.value).

Creating the file and integrating it in the program

From now on, the lang name, ID and fallback are replaced respectively by [name], [ID] and [fallback] in the code parts.

Inside this lang/ folder, you must create a file named [ID].lgd.

Creating the file
The easy/new way

Simply copy and paste the blank.lgd file, then rename it.

The hard/old way

You may create this file by using the Notepad (Windows), Nano (command-line *nix), Mousepad (*nix), Notepad++ (Windows and MacOS?) or any other RAW TEXT file editor. (That means, Word won't work.) Then save a new/empty file and remove EVERYTHING from the save name, including the .txt to replace it with the file name.

Beware: if the file name finishes by .txt, you created it wrong. It won't work.

Beware: if it is written anywhere that this file is a text file, you very likely created it wrong. It probably won't work (though since the file is a text file it may be OK). The extension shouldn't be recognized by file explorers and if the file type is displayed it should show LGD file (in Windows at least).

It is possible that you created it wrong even if it display .lgd at the end of the name: you simply hid the file extensions.

If you created it wrong, delete it and start again. It won't work.

Register it

Next, inside the dictionary.lua file, at line 497, there is a line that start with langs = {. (If that is not the case, search the file to find this line.)

Once you see that line, it is time to add the lang. Before the finishing closing brackets a bit later in the file, you must add , {id = "[ID]", name = "[name]", fallback = "[fallback]"} (put the comma at the end of the previous line).

If all this is done correctly (see Testing), good job! You successfully added your language to the list of registered languages!

Testing

To test if you successfully done everything until here, launch the game, go to the settings and select your language. If you can't, something has gone wrong. (It should display some things, since it fallbacks to en_US by default. If you changed this, when having your language translated it should display options.display instead of a full prompt. Enter 7 to validate or 6 to revert the language.)

Adding the translations

What is a translation

In my .lgd files, a translation is a "states-key to string" correspondance.

A states-key is a string.

States are keywords separated by .. A key is a keyword, optionally followed by : and a keyword.

Keywords are anything that doesn't contains any of .:=, space and horizontal tab. It is generally lowercase and spaces are replaced by _.

When the game tries to translate a string (for instance ig.sword.sword), it first try to get the translation for these states and the key, but if it can't find that translation, it removes the last state (for instance the first sword.) and try again (with ig.sword then sword with the example).

What are alternatives

When the key contains a :, it defines an alternative and not a string anymore.

Alternatives may be used when you want to write less code have different states and the state make the translation differs. (For instance, a string can change depending on whether you already have an object or not.)

The alternative keyword is what precedes the : (and follow the final . ), and the alternative name is what follows the : (and precedes the = part). By default, the active alternative is the first alternative defined.

What about the lines starting with #

These are comments and are ignored by the langs.

Creating the translation

The translation string is the states (separated with .), followed by the key/alternative group. Then you have the = part that separate the key from the translation. Then you have the translation.

All this must be in one line.

I want to have a multi-line translation, how do I do

There are multiple escapable characters. The one you are looking for is the %l.

Escapable characters

If it is translated "at reading time", it is replaced by the corresponding value when reading the file.

If it is translated "at translation time", it is replaced by the corresponding value when translating (generally using the arguments passed when asking for translate).

When upper-case is supported, the first letter is changed to an upper-case letter. To have it, just change the letter after the % to an upper-case letter.

  1. %%: translation time. It is always replaced by %, independantly of the arguments.
  2. %b: translation time, upper-case supported. Replaced by on or off.
  3. %c[]m: reading time. Replaced by the color replacing [] using the escape codes (ESC[...m, see ANSI escape codes). There is no check for whether this is valid, be careful with this otherwise it will display weird things.
  4. %I[] followed by a space or horizontal tab: translation time, no argument. It is replaced by the translation of what replaces [] in the active lang, not the current one if translating using a fallback.
  5. %j: reading time. Replaced by a ^J (moves one character back, but does not removes it).
  6. %l: reading time. Replaced by a new line.
  7. %n: translation time. Replaced by a number or ? (if the argument is not a number).
  8. %r: reading time. Replaced by the color/bold/... reset (same as %cm, but better for syntax coloration).
  9. %s: translation time. Replaced by a string.
  10. %y: translation time, upper-case supported. Replaced by yes or no.

What about the level lang dictionaries

The difference between lld and lgd files is that in the lld files, the translation "state" starts with the lang ID.

Also, there are some state that are automatically added:

  • Before all other states: ig.levels
  • Before the translation key: the level name

These are designed to be used only for levels.

Meaning the line:

en_US.lores.end.death:default = You DIE. Maybe next time you'll survive?%l

in starter.lld will be equivalent to adding for the en_US language:

ig.levels.lores.end.starter.death:default = You DIE. Maybe next time you'll survive?%l

What about those nanorc file

Those files are a syntaxic coloration only supported by Nano.

What is Nano

It is a terminal-based text editor, available on *nix.

How can I use it

To enable it, first locate it. It will be replaced by [pwd] below.

  • In *nix, in a terminal, go into where it is located and type pwd<Enter>. The answer is the location.
  • In *nix, in a file navigator, right-click and click on Open a terminal here then type pwd<Enter>. The answer is the location.

Then, in the terminal, type nano ~/.nanorc<Enter> and append

include [pwd]/lgd.nanorc
include [pwd]/lld.nanorc

Then exit Nano.

What will it do

  • It will write in bright red everything/most of what is wrong.
  • It will write states and key/alternatives in yellow, the equals sign in red and the rest in green.
  • It will write every states and key/alternatives registered in bright yellow.
  • It will fill extra spaces before and after the translation (that are actually in the translated text) in green.
  • It will tell you where are the valid (bold green)/invalid (bold red or red if at end of line) %., but also if the %c is valid: there must be no %cm, %c0m, %c00m, any invalid 3+ digit numbers, anything other than numbers or ;, a finishing m letter. Eventually it will color in magenta the text between the %c and the %r.
  • It will tell you if the %I are in a valid state and tell you that the space after is deleted. The insertion text (after the %I) is bolded if it is recognized.