Starting Site Translations

After almost a year of finding out how to handle internationalization and developing the solution choosen Harald, last week, announced the first part of the new Counter internationalization.

It's now time for the second part. Translation of the webpages can be started, as all static php pages have been rebuild using gettext functionality. Using Dutch and Norwegian (sorry, our mother languages) for testing and as examples, at http://i18n.counter.li.org you can see the current results of our efforts to make the Counter as international as possible.

Although the results look promising, a whole lot of work still has to be done. Sofar the static pages can be translated, but all pages generated by scripts have to be rebuild using gettext functionality. Futhermore, although most functionality of the internationalized site seems to work fine, still some parts have to be taken care of. Side by side the new internationalized site and the current, English main site will thus be available for, possibly, a very long time; just to make sure all functionality is available for everybody.

And now the part were you can help us. Already somewhere around 1100 (parts of) sentences are available for translation in all the languages you want the Counter to appear. As we don't know all your languages, we really need your help to translate them. And translation work will grow and continue when more parts of the site know about gettext functionality, new parts are added and existing parts get changed over time. So, this is a call for everybody who is willing to help us. Please subscribe yourself to (if not already subscribed) by sending the word "subscribe" in the BODY of a message to . This mailinglist will be used for further detailed information about what needs to be done, how to handle translations and ofcourse discussions about all the nasty details related to building an internationalized site.

Maybe, with all your help, at the end of 2005 we can say: "Yes, the Counter is available in all known languages" ........... It's up to you!

Patrick