Right to left language?

All announcements, questions and issues related to the TsiLang Components Suite.
Post Reply
primarypower
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:37 pm

Right to left language?

Post by primarypower »

How does TsiLang handle right to left language?

There are some customers asking for translation to some right to left language (Arabic I think...), so how does it work? What about format strings, they must be inverted as well... but how will it work?
isiticov
Site Admin
Posts: 2383
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:17 pm

Post by isiticov »

Using Extended Translations you can change BiDiMode for forms or it would be better to change it on application level by changing Application.BiDiMode in OnChangeLanguage event of TsiLang.
For format strings that might be used under right-to-left language I would recommend to use [index] specifier to always be sure that the correct value will be placed into correct location. Please check Format() function description in help file, there is a description for this parameter.
Best regards,
Igor Siticov.
primarypower
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:37 pm

Post by primarypower »

Hi Igor

Well after a few years it finally happened now we are obligated to translate into Arabic.

I did a few tests with Format using index and it actually works... but what about the SIL Editor?

When I ask it to check format string it always says that there are erros (obviously because Arabic is from right to left), for example:

In english: %d %s

In arabic: %1:s %0:d

But then when we do that, the SIL editor keeps complaining that the format string is wrong... How can we handle that?
isiticov
Site Admin
Posts: 2383
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:17 pm

Post by isiticov »

Hello,

If you use indexes in English string as well this might reduce the amount of warnings while checking format strings.
Also we will try to improve checking method in SIL Editor to take care about indexes.
Best regards,
Igor Siticov.
primarypower
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:37 pm

Post by primarypower »

Hi Igor

I also tried using indexes in the main language but still the editor complains...

If I have to use indexes in English language that will be a pain because we have to change all translations to reflect the indexes that will be a huge huge work..

Please, we are in deeply need for that in the editor, for it to accept the indexes in the translated language even if original language has no index.

We are being pushed hard to translate our software to Arabic but I don't see how we could do that properly if the editor keeps showing a lot of error when we open SIL files

Thank you!
isiticov
Site Admin
Posts: 2383
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:17 pm

Post by isiticov »

Hello,

We've updated SIL Editor on the web site (as stand-alone package) and this update includes improvement for verification of formatted strings. If you will try it please let us know how it worked for you.
Best regards,
Igor Siticov.
primarypower
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:37 pm

Post by primarypower »

Hi Igor

I tested the editor and the function "Check Format String" looks like it is working good....

The only annoying thing is that when loading a SIL file it still shows an error message "Format specifiers don't match for all languages" for every string that I have in the file.

You are probably checking for consistency when loading the SIL file (during load), but the "Check Format String" is properly identifying the position of the identifiers.

Can you please fix this?

Thanks
primarypower
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:37 pm

Post by primarypower »

Just for you information, for testing I just exported a SIL file with these two strings:

TForm1.IDS_0 Message %d %s %d %2:d %1:s %0:d Message
TForm1.IDS_1 Message %s %d %s %2:s %1:d %0:s Message


First field is "English" and second language is "Arabic", just for testing check format string
isiticov
Site Admin
Posts: 2383
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:17 pm

Post by isiticov »

Hello,

We will check and fix this.
Best regards,
Igor Siticov.
isiticov
Site Admin
Posts: 2383
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:17 pm

Post by isiticov »

Hello,

We've updated SIL Editor on our web site. This update includes the discussed fix.
Best regards,
Igor Siticov.
Post Reply