The KBabel Handbook
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# Glossary

# A

Auxiliary file

  is a KBabel specific issue. It is an option for user to setup one PO-file where searching is for original messages. That, if you're a member of French team and have some Spanish or Italian knowledge, you can grab and setup an auxiliary Spanish PO-file associated with your in-translation file. That, you can find yet unthinked synonimes.

# C

Compendium file

  is a collection of all translations for one language. This big PO-file is made by unique messages from all applications PO-files. It can be used to fill in all already translated strings into new yet untranslated or partially translated PO-file. KBabel use such file in "PO Compendium" search engine.

# F

Fuzzy

  This is a flag generated in general by msgmerge. It show that msgstr string might not be a correct translation. Translator must see and make modifications if string requires. After that "fuzzy" flag must be removed from message comment.

# I

Internationalization
(i18n)

  is the operation by which an application is made aware and able to support multiple languages. The "internationalization" word have 20 characters and is quite a long word. To short it, people started to write only the first and last characters and between them write the number of intermediate characters (18).

  See Also: Localization.

# L

Localization
(l10n)

  is the operation by which an application already internationalized is made to process input and output in a fashion desired by some cultural and language habits. The "localization" word have 12 characters and is a long word. For convenience, people started to write only the first and last characters and between them write the number of intermediate characters (10).

  See Also: Internationalization.

# M

MO file
(MO)

  MO means Machine Object and this file contain binary data suitable for reading by computers. MO-file content is organized as a database to minimize lookup time for translated strings. MO-files are obtained by compiling PO-files with msgfmt.

  See Also: PO file, POT file.

Message ID
(msgid)

  msgid is the keyword which introduce the original string in PO file. It is followed by C-like string that span on one or multiple lines.

  See Also: Message String.

Message String
(msgstr)

  msgstr is the keyword which introduce the translated string in PO file. It is followed by C-like string that span on one or multiple lines.

  See Also: Message ID.

# P

PO file
(PO)

  PO means Portable Object and PO files contain sets of strings which associate each translatable string with its translation in a particular language. A single PO-file relate only to one language. PO-file is derived from an POT-file and is meant to be edited by humans.

  See Also: POT file, MO file.

POT file
(POT)

  POT means Portable Object Template. This file is build by extracting translatable strings from application source files. POT-file does not contain translations and is used by each translator as template.

  See Also: PO file, MO file.

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