Forums Feature Suggestions More languages support??

Mmm.. the 3 most spoken languages on the world are:

1) Chinese
2) English
3) Spanish

Obviously there are variations (traditional/simplified chinese, american/uk english, modern/latinamerican spanish, etc...).

Well that is true that they speak Spanish in Spain though South America is a far bigger place and Spanish and Portuguese are the two languages most commonly spoken there. That said I take nothing away from the Spaniards though.

Chinese would be #1, but that's "#1 based on population" not "#1 based on people who use computers and the internet." China doesn't think to kindly of the internet and even less kindly of IRC, so in terms of mIRC, Chinese should be supported, but I doubt there are hundreds of millions of people who would use it as would happen with French/Spanish.

I said 'most spoken' not 'most used on Internet'. Anyway China will be in a couple of years one of the most important countries related with Internet (i know, i know, chinese firewall, chinese goverment, etc, etc.. but time to the time, wait and you'll see it, don't forget that they're nearly four times the population of USA, for example, and they have an enormous potential).

And please, a personal wish and an important remark... spanish 'modern' language ISN'T latinamerican spanish, ISN'T argentinian, nor mexican, nor (place here your favourite latinamerican country). Spanish 'modern' language is spoken on Spain (and no, Spain ISN'T Mexico, learn some geography :P), if any of you makes or want to make a REAL spanish translation of mirc please, make sure that YOU are spanish or know 'modern' spanish... i'm tired to see on Internet poor and cheap 'spanish' translations that only have argentinian or mexican phrases (and yes, i'm spanish and i'm the official 'modern' spanish translator of some well-know programs, manuals, faqs, etc...).

And for your info, not only people from China speak Chinese, in Singapore, where I am, most of us take Chinese as 2nd language.

Then perhaps you might like to assist in translating mIRC the way you feel it should sound. I'm sure that Khaled doesn't speak Spanish himself, so I imagine any volunteered translation would be greatly appreciated.

Note however, that perhaps some regions don't speak the same flavor of Spanish that you speak, and what you consider poor might be the standard that Mexicans and other cultures feel most comfortable with. Consider how complex and varied the English language for instance. Would you pack mIRC full with 5-dollar or Old English words, or plain and simple words that all classes and cultures can understand with minimal effort..?

Here are some of the text resources from mIRC, if you want to start translating them now. Of corse each line is subject to change significantly by the time open translation is implimented.

The first file is a string table containing mostly error messages and other information that would appear in the status and other windows. These can be translated pretty freely, but the translater mustn't translate actual command or function names, etc. The next file contains menu items that can also be translated pretty freely, but great care should be taken to make sure menu items don't have conflicting shortcut characters. They must also keep the same Hotkeys. The last file contains dialog text from every config and popup dialog in mIRC. This will be the most difficult if not impossible to translate because of the restricted space each line of text has in their fixed position in the dialog. Translations that are too long would likely be overlapped by a dialog object. I would blame this as the sole reason that translation has not yet been implimented.

There's not much you can do with these files, but translate them for fun and in preperation for when such a feature is finally added to mIRC.

Until then.

- Raccoon

What exactly do you mean by 'hotkeys', the key combination like ALT+B, or the underlined character? I think the key combinations should stay the same, but the underlined characters don't have to.

I am dutch and use my parents pc, so I see quite some software that has been translated to dutch. And half of it has been 'over translated': almost every word was translated, like 'file'->'bestand', 'directory'->'map' (from 'folder' aargh) etc. I'd hate to see someone come up with translations for 'alias' 'remote' etc.

I'm also making a script that uses language files. The greatest problem for me was that the dutch text somehow always seemed to take up more space then english. Since I was still developing the script I could easily make room for this, but I think this would probably become a problem when translating mIRC. Translators will probaly have to come up with creative solutions, or Khaled would have to enlarge a lot of controls, which would probably mean redesigning a large part of mIRC.

What exactly do you mean by 'hotkeys', the key combination like ALT+B, or the underlined character? I think the key combinations should stay the same, but the underlined characters don't have to.

Yes, that is exactly what I meant. You may choose your own 'underline character' but the key combination like Alt+B must remain the same. The underlined character is determined by a & character preceeding the letter you want used. I believe the proper term used is Menu Accelerator Key. I could be wrong.

I'd hate to see someone come up with translations for 'alias' 'remote' etc.

Agreed. Probably all proper names and technical references should be left alone, unless a widly accepted translation already exists for that word. I'd hate to think "space bar" might be translated to "room rod" or "astral tavern" in a different language.

The greatest problem for me was that the dutch text somehow always seemed to take up more space then english.

Yes, that is the greatest problem when translating a program, which is why I'd probably not worry about trying to translate the third file I posted above.

- Raccoon

Well I never said Spain was Mexico, and that doesn't really matter. In the UK, in Australia, in the US, etc., we all speak different versions of English, yet, for the most part we are able to understand eachother. To my knowledge, the same holds true for Spanish. People I know who are Spanish tell me they can even understand enough Portuguese to be able to have a conversation in Portuguese simply because it is so similar to Spanish.

As for Chinese, I'm aware of what you said, but, my point is, just because Chinese is spoken a lot IRL doesn't mean it is such a signifigant influence on the internet and IRC/mIRC. Meaning, there are other languages that imho are more influential. As Watchdog pointed out, French is generally the second international language. Almost all, if not all, of Africa either speaks English or French, English and French also add the US and all of Canada, and most of Europe. Even the UN recognizes French as an international language, look at www.un.int note how it only has translations in English and in French, not to Chinese.