We're programming in Delphi 2006, using Multilizer 5.1 to translate the program. Now we've to added Polish as a new language in Multilizer. But when we open our executable, Multlizer says "Polish is not supported by the codepage".
If we adjust our regional settings to Polish, whenever we open the executable, the regional settings flip back to the original setting, which is Dutch. Maybe we should set the CodePage setting in our Project Options, but the dropdown list does not give us any options.
Any ideas?
So it turns out we only had to set the Language for non-Unicode programs in the Regional and Language Options in Control Panel. The bad news is that the French version is now having the same problem.
If you want your application to support all possible language regardless of the Regional and Language Options on the user's computer, you'll need to migrate your application to Delphi 2009 or later. Starting with Delphi 2009, Delphi produces Unicode applications. It'll likely take some effort to fix any code that assumes that SizeOf(Char) = 1. But that one-time job should be much less effort than constantly having to deal with code page issues in your Delphi 2006 application.
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we have a application written in vb6, we also have the multilingual support for this application, we provide all the user message along with the ID's in .LNG file but application is not supporting the Unicode language like Japanese, Chinese etc.,can anyone suggest how to proceed the minimum change in the code and make this work !!!
Thanks
Standard VB6 controls doesn't support UNICODE. It is possible to use MS Forms controls (FM20.DLL). INFO: Usage and Redistribution of FM20.DLL.
The problem is that old version i buggy and is updated by MS-Office. New version of office id 64-bit and doesn't contain 32-bit FM20.DLL. I think it it only 'simple' way of implementing UNICODE but still it is massive change to the application.
Howerer VB6 supports different languages at least European, but the texts have to be properly encoded (Code Page Identifiers). I suppose that usual Windows font such as MS-San Serif, Arial supports most of languages.
If the windows default language is set properly other language characters should work. See e.g. HOW TO:Change language settings in Windows XP or try Japanese windows direclty.
I have an English version of the Windows XP operating system installed on my computer. If I try to use the Russian input language, for example, to give a form a caption that's written in Russian, the only thing I see is those unintelligible symbols that you often see when there is a problem with proper character encoding. Is there a way to make Delphi recognize Russian characters?
Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.
You can change default code-page used for programs that do not provide locale info (Control Panel > Regional setting > Advanced) to your locale (Russian).
As for SQL that is a separate question probably solved by SQL DB settings.
P.S. I would suggest you to move to Unicode version of Delphi (XE) and SQL too.
Does Delphi support internationalization in any way?
I've seen that I can add different languages for a project, but that seems to create multiple instances of the dfm files. Am I right that the language therefore cannot be changed at runtime?
How do you handle internationalization (if you do)? Are there any best-practices?
Delphi ships with some tools to do this.
Here is a tutorial for Delphi 2005, and a video of Nick Hodges showing off the more recent version for Delphi 2009.
I have once experimented with runtime change of languages. It worked great, but I needed to write lots of code myself (and circumvent the dfm files). The problem is, it is a lot of hassle and you almost never need this.
The better option (in my opinion) is to create a base language version and use a translator tool for the other language. We use a third party translator that works on the executable and dll. It replaces the strings in the resources and creates new binary files.
One big plus of this tool is that it shows the translated dialogs (standard windows components only) so you have direct feedback if labels are too large.
Amd then there is dxgettext:
http://dxgettext.po.dk/
traditionally one of the tools used to change language runtime without restart.
Note that with Delphi/unicode the amount of code changes with this packages has decreased (one no longer has to change any resourcestring use)
I have been using the SiComponents before. They allow you to change all text independently from the executable. You can embed the diferent languages in your executable (not recomended) or load them from files. There is also an editor to support translation. They are very good, stable, and fast.
In Delphi 2006 under Tools, Options, Translation Tools Options you can configure the translation tools, especially theTranslation Repository. It can be found under View, Translation Manager. All translated strings will be ressource strings and can be stored in language specific dll. Searching the help for Translation Manager will point you in the right direction.
I second the recommendation for using the TsiLang components(www.sicomponents.com). I've just used them to upgrade from English-only to English + Chinese, selectable at run-time, and found the process to be quite a lot easier than I was expecting. The end results are not perfect, but certainly good enough to work with.
I have developed about 300 Applications which I would like to provide with multi-language capabilities independent from the Operating System. I have written a just-in-time translator, but that is too slow in applications with many components. What would you suggest I do?
We are using TsiLang and are very happy with it.
One of the best points is that you can pretranslate the project with a dictionary (which you filled from existing translations).
I've heard that the TsiLang components are nice, but your looking at an inplace solution...
I've used GNU gettext for Delphi which does exactly the thing you want, it loads the translations from a text file and replaces the text in your components. It even has a pas/dfm scanner to automatically generate the English translation file.
It's also possible to automatically change your pascal source code to inject the gettext procedure inplace of your static strings. If I'm not mistaken it just adds a underscore as function to it, as below.
ShowMessage('Hello'); // before
ShowMessage(_('Hello')); // after
I must say it has been 2 years since I last used this method.
One thing will remain problematic, the Delphi components are not unicode enabled (D2009 fixes this), so when you don't change the components you'll still have limited support for other languages.
A good free solution would be GNU gettext for Delphi. It has some capabilities not present in TsiLang - for example, you can put the knowledge on how to count things (different endings for one, two, four, hundred and two, many ...) into the translation file so that you don't have to teach each program to know this stuff.
License for the Delphi part is very permissive but I'm not sure how much the included GNU stuff will affect your application.
Get Multilizer. It is made in Delphi and it can handle Delphi programs like no other with special support for VCL. You can even redo your screens easy for every language. With Multilizer you can use different techniques to translate and run your program.
Delphi 2009 has added an Integrated Translation Environment/External Translation Manager
ITE and ETM are now available for both Delphi and C++Builder.
In Codegear's article: What's New in Delphi and C++Builder 2009, they state:
The Integrated Translation Environment
(ITE) is a part of the IDE that
simplifies localizing your projects.
ITE can create a new localized project
from an existing project. ITE does not
automatically translate text, but
provides a dialog listing all text
that needs to be localized and fields
in which to enter the corresponding
translated text. Once you have entered
the translated text and built the
localized project, you can set another
language active and display a form in
the localized text; you don't have to
switch locales and reboot your system.
This allows you to perform
localization without requiring a
localized system.
The External Translation Manager (ETM)
is a standalone application that works
with DFM files and text strings in the
source code. Although ETM does not
allow you to create a new localized
project, it does provide a dialog
listing localized text and the
translated text, similarly to ITE.
This is what I plan to try first once I am at the point that I want to Internationalize my product.
However, to me the easy part is to translate the program. The hard part is to translate the help file.
I would say GNU gettext for Delphi in combination with TMS Unicode Component Pack (previously free under TntWare) to get unicode support in the components.
To work with, or have translators work with, the gettext files I recommend looking at the free cross-platform Poedit that may edit the .po files.
Just to mention cxLocalizer if you own DexExpress components.
Does anyone know (like in tried and succeeded) if I can have D2009 both in English and in French?
It's not so much to generate French or English applications but to have the IDE available in either language to take screen shots and make demos in French or in English.
What would be involved: complementary install plus some shortcut param switch?
Install one version in a virtual machine. I hear VMWare works really good.
Nope, won't work. If they were different versions (ie. one 2007, one 2009) then you should be fine, but if they are the same version you'll need to go the VM route as Jim suggested.
Why would you want that? If you need internationalized versions of your program, you should better use at tool for that purpose (e.g. dxGetText) rather than recompile it with a different Delphi version. In that case I definitely suggest using the English IDE, so you can translate the RTL errors from English to the target language.