About texts in Simutrans and how to translate them English » Simutrans » Development

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Development Index -> Texts in Simutrans

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Translation and Texts

Simutrans can be used with a lot of languages. But some languages haven't been translated completely yet, and due to continuous development of the program and paks being added by many people, translations need to be frequently updated and enhanced.

Translation and Texts
Information/Tips for Translators

Technical Background

The texts used in Simutrans are distributed over several files and folders. The program has its own output texts, called base texts, and each pakset also provides texts (e.g. road types, signal types, building names), called <pak-name> texts. Both kinds of internal texts can come in only one language (mostly English nowadays, but a lot are in German, due to the program's origin), and may not be nicely formatted, or up-to-date regarding their actual meaning within context.

These texts (technical name is strings, another name is text elements) need to be replaced by the language that the player wants to use (even if it is English or German), which is done by using the mapping (from internal texts to a certain language) contained in <language code>.tab - one file for the base texts (in simutrans/text), one for the pak texts (in simutrans/<pak-dir>/text).

To insert dynamic values into output-strings, Simutrans uses C-style placeholders like (see printf()) in base texts:

%s for strings
%d for whole numbers
%f for floating-point numbers
%c for single characters

etc. (they may include formatting options). These have to be used in translation with the same type, order and meaning.

Help texts

The English help texts can be found in the folder simutrans/text/en. These are plain text files, that support a small set of HTML-syntax.

Element	Show	Meaning
<title>Text</title>		is the window title
<h1>Text</h1>	Text	underlined text (heading)
<strong>Text</strong>	Text	red text
<em>Text</em>	Text	white text
<it>Text</it>		yellow text shadow
<br/>		line break
<p>Text</p>		paragraph
<a href="file.txt">Text</a>	Text	link to another help file

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Program texts

The application texts can be found in the folder simutrans/text. The file containing the English texts is called en.tab.

The files are built up by doubleline sets and use Unix line breaks.

On the first line is given the tag that is used in the game. On the second line is given the text that should be shown to the user.

The character sequence \n is used to mark a line break.

A line that starts with # is a comment.

The program texts are translated with SimuTranslator.

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Pakset texts

Pakset texts can be found in the folder simutrans/[PAKSET]/text. The file containing the English texts is called en.tab.

The files are built up by doubleline sets and use Unix line breaks.

On the first line is given the tag that is used in the game. On the second line is given the text that should be shown to the user.

The character sequence \n is used to mark a line break.

A line that starts with # is a comment.

The program texts are translated with SimuTranslator.

Factory texts

The pakset texts describing the factories (factory_[factory_name]_details) are special in that they do not support line break by the character sequence \n, instead the text must be structured by using the HTML elements <br/> (line break) and <p> </p> (paragraph).

Furthermore these HTML elements can be used:

Element	Display	Meaning
<title>Text</title>		the window title
<h1>Text</h1>	Text	underlined text (heading)
<strong>Text</strong>	Text	red text
<em>Text</em>	Text	white text

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Addon texts

Text for addons can be placed in additonal tab files.

The files are built up by doubleline sets and use Unix line breaks. The file names must be given a name starting with the language prefix (for English en_) and be placed in the folder simutrans/[PAKSET]/text.

On the first line is given the tag that is used in the game. On the second line is given the text that should be shown to the user.

The character sequence \n is used to mark a line break.

A line that starts with # is a comment.

Information/Tips for Translators

SimuTranslator is the web application that is used to translate Simutrans texts from the origin ("master") language into the different languages. The entries are stored in a SQL database, from which the .tab files are generated and downloaded when assembling a pakset. The entry page for the SimuTranslator is http://simutranslator.simutrans-germany.com/. Without an account there, you aren't granted access to all functions, but you can enter so-called suggestions, which can easily be "promoted" to official translations. Accounts may be requested from prissi at the forum.

The forum board for translation issues/questions is http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?board=41.0.

To translate properly, you need to find out the actual meaning in context, not just translate the isolated internal or master text. For most pak objects, you can look at the objects' properties and pictures in SimuTranslator, but for base texts, you may need to find the text in use, and understand its meaning by using the program, or you can read forum announcements and discussions regarding (new) features, their use and Simutrans's internal behavior.

To see the internal texts in the game itself (so you can look for them in .tab files and SimuTanslator), create a file simutrans/text/zz.tab (important: with Unix-style linefeeds: '\n' = LF), containing only these lines (you can, of course, exchange the separator definitions):

ZZ_System
PROP_FONT_FILE
Prop-Latin1.bdf
SEP_THOUSAND
.
SEP_FRACTION
,

Guidelines for translation are found at Simutrans Translation Rules

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Contributors to this page: Susanna and Frank (Admin) .
Page last modified on Monday 23 August 2010 23:37:04 CEST by Susanna .

Category: Development

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Wiki Help
Plugin Help
Advanced Search Help

Wiki Syntax

For more information, please see Wiki Page Editor and Wiki Syntax

Wiki Syntax
Bold text __text__
Italic text 2 single quotes ('). ''text''
Underlined text ===text===
Colored text ~~#FFEE33:text~~ or ~~yellow:text~~. Will display using the indicated HTML color or color name. Color name can contain two colors separated by a comma. In this case, the first color would be the foreground and the second one the background.
Deleted text 2 dashes "-". --text--
Headings !heading1, !!heading2, !!!heading3
Show/Hide !+, !!- show/hide heading section. + (shown) or - (hidden) by default.
Autonumbered Headings !#, !!#, !+#, !-# ...
Table of contents {toc}, {maketoc} prints out a table of contents for the current page based on structures (toc) or ! headings (maketoc)
Horizontal rule ----
Text box ^Box content^
Centered text ::text::
Dynamic variables %Name% Inserts an editable variable
External links use square brackets for an external link: [URL], [URL\|link_description],[URL\|link_description\|relation] or [URL\|description\|relation\|nocache] (that last prevents the local Wiki from caching the linked page; relation can be used to insert rel attribute for the link - useful e.g. for shadowbox). For an external Wiki, use ExternalWikiName:PageName or ((External Wiki Name: Page Name))
Square Brackets Use [[foo] to show [foo].
Wiki References ((page)) or ((page\|description)) for wiki references , ((page\|#anchor)) or ((page\|#anchor\|desc)) for wiki heading/anchor references
Lists * for bullet lists, # for numbered lists, ;Word:definition for definiton lists
Indentation +, ++ Creates an indentation for each plus (useful in list to continue at the same level)
Tables \|\|row1-col1\|row1-col2\|row1-col3 row2-col1\|row2-col2\|row2-col3\|\|
Title bar -=Title=-
Monospace font -+Code sample+-
Line break %%% (very useful especially in tables)
Multi-page pages Use ...page... to separate pages
Non parsed sections ~np~ data ~/np~ Prevents wiki parsing of the enclosed data.
Preformated sections ~pp~ data ~/pp~ Displays preformated text/code; no Wiki processing is done inside these sections (as with np), and the spacing is fixed (no word wrapping is done). ~pre~ data ~/pre~ also displayes preformatted text with fixed spacing, but wiki processing still occurs on the text.
Comments ~tc~ Tiki Comment ~/tc~ makes a Tiki comment. It will be completely removed from the display, but saved in the file for future reference. ~hc~ HTML Comment ~/hc~ makes an HTML comment. It will be inserted as a comment in the output HTML; these are not normally displayed in browsers, but can be seen using "View Source" or similar.
Block Preformatting Indent text with any number of spaces to turn it into a monospaced block that still follows other Wiki formatting instructions. It will be indended with the same number of spaces that you used. Note that this mode does not preserve exact spacing and line breaks; use ~pp~...~/pp~ for that.
Direction {r2l}, {l2r}, {rm}, {lm}Insert resp. right-to-left and left-to-right text direction DIV (up to end of text) and markers for langages as arabic or hebrew.
Special characters ~hs~ hard space, ~c~ ©, ~amp~ &, ~lt~ <, ~gt~ >, ~ldq~ “, ~rdq~ ”, ~lsq~ ‘, ~rsq~ ’, ~--~ —, ~bs~ \, numeric between ~ for html numeric characters entity

Because the Wiki paragraph formatting feature is on, all groups of non-blank lines are collected into paragraphs. Lines can be of any length, and will be wrapped together with the next line. Paragraphs are separated by blank lines.

Plugins

Note that plugin arguments can be enclosed with double quotes ("); this allows them to contain , or = or >.
More help here

Filter:

Description
Anchor Link Creates a link to an anchor within a page. Anchors can be created using the ANAME plugin.
Anchor Name Inserts an anchor in the wiki page. Anchors can be linked to using the ALINK plugin.
Image Annotation Displays an image and enables users to define zones to highlight information on the image.
Article Includes an article's content within the page.
Article List Inserts a list of articles in the page.
Attachment Displays an attachment or a list of them
Avatar Displays the user Avatar
Back Displays a link that allows to go back in the browser history
Backlinks List all pages linking to the specified page.
Blog List Use BLOGLIST to include posts from a blog.
Box Insert theme-styled box on wiki page
Inserts a line break in a wiki page.: {BR()}{BR}
Calendar Includes a calendar and/or a list of calendar events.
Category Insert list of items with the current/given category in the wiki page
Category Orphans Display Tiki objects that have not been categorized
Category Path Insert the full category path for each category that this wiki page belongs to
Center Centers the plugin content in the wiki page
Code Displays a snippet of code
Dynamic Content Includes content from the dynamic content system.
Cookie Also known as fortune cookies or taglines
Countdown Displays a countdown from now until the specified date.
Div Insert a division block, span, blockquote or other text formatting on wiki page.
Definition List Creates a definition list
Events Includes the list of events from a calendar in the page.
Fade Displays a label. On click, the block of content will fade in and fade out.
Fancy List Creates a fancy-looking list
Fancy Table Displays the data using the Tikiwiki odd/even table style
File Displays a link to an attachment to a wiki page and can display an image attachment.
Files Displays a list of files from the File Gallery
Flash video Displays a Flash (.swf) file in the wiki page
Footnote Inserts a superscripted footnote number next to text and takes in footnote as parameter.
Footnotearea Inserts a section for collected footnotes in the wiki page.
googlemap Displays a Google map
Group Display wiki text if user is in one of listed groups
Group List List of groups including a group
Group Stats Displays some stat about group belonging
HTML Include literal HTML in a Wiki page
Image Display images
Image Display images
Include Include a page's content.
Kaltura video Displays a KALTURA video on the wiki page
Language Displays the text only if the language matchs
Last Modification The last_mod plugin replaces itself with last modification time of the named wiki page, or the current page if no name given
List Pages List wiki pages.
List Directory Lists files in a directory
Mail Allow to send mail to groups or user or email directly
Mediaplayer Simple mp3 or flv Player
Member List Lists the members of selected groups and allows to add or remove members if permissions are granted.
Insert Module Displays a module inline in a wiki page. More parameters can be added, not supported by UI.
Monospace Displays the data using a monospace font
Mouseover Create a mouseover feature on some text
Displays the data using (sort of) MediaWiki syntax: {MWTABLE(fancy=>true\|false,wiki_classes=>true\|false)}data{MWTABLE}
MySpace Displays a MySpace Flash mp3 playlist in the wiki page
Object Hits Displays object hit info by object and days
Picture Display uploaded pictures
Plugin Manager Displays a list of plugins available in this wiki.
Poll Displays the output of a poll, fields are indicated with numeric ids.
Quote Quote text by surrounding the text with a box, like the [QUOTE] BBCode
User List (showing Real Name) Displays a list of registered users showing their Real Names (experimental, should be merged with UserList in Tiki5)
Regular Expression Takes regex expressions and parses the content between REGEX tags and replaces the text.
Remarks Box Displays a comment, tip, note or warning box
RSS Feed Inserts an RSS feed output.
SourceForge Automatically creates a link to the appropriate SourceForge object
Show Pages List wiki pages
No description available
Snarf Include the content of a remote HTTP page. Regular expression selecting the content portion to include must be specified.
Sort Sorts the plugin content in the wiki page
Split Split a page into rows and columns
Subscript Displays text in subscript.
Subscribe Group Subscribe or unsubscribe to a group
Subscribe Groups Subscribe or unsubscribe to a group
Subscribe newsletter A button to subscribe to a newsletter available for a user if not already in
Superscript Displays text in superscript (exponent).
Survey Displays a survey
Tabs Provides tabs built using the smarty tabset block.
Tag Displays the text between an html tag
Thumbnail Displays a thumbnail of an image that enlarges upon mouseover or links to a target
Title Search Search wiki page titles.
Table of Contents (Structure) Displays the table of contents for the current structure's subtree as part of the page content.
Top Friends List top-scoring users.
Translate Translate a string using Tikiwiki translation table.
Tracker Displays an input form for tracker submit
Tracker Comments Displays the number of tracker comments
Tracker Filter Filters the items of a tracker, fields are indicated with numeric ids.
Tracker Item Field Displays the value of a tracker item field or the wiki text if the value of the field is set or has a value(if itemId not specified, use the itemId of the url or the user tracker).
Tracker List Displays the output of a tracker content, fields are indicated with numeric ids.
Tracker Prefill Displays a button to link to a page with a tracker plugin with prefilled tracker fields.
Tracker Stats Displays some stat of a tracker content, fields are indicated with numeric ids.
Tracker Timeline Timeline view of a tracker, can be used to display event schedules or gantt charts.
Displays some stat of a tracker content, fields are indicated with numeric ids.: `{TRAFD(fields=>2,filtervalue=>2)}{TRAFD}`
Translated Links to a translated content
User Count Displays the number of registered users
User List Displays a list of registered users
Userpref Display wiki text if user has a pref set to a value
Versions Split the text in parts visible only under some conditions
Vote Displays some stat of a tracker content, fields are indicated with numeric ids.
Wanted Pages Lists ''wanted'' wiki pages
Youtube Display youtube video in a wiki page

Search Help

Default search behavior

By default, all search terms are optional.Objects that contain the terms are rated higher in the results. For example, wiki forum will find:

objects that include the term wiki
objects that include the term forum
objects that include both terms

Requiring terms

Add a plus sign ( + ) before a term to indicate that the term must appear in results.

Excluding terms

Add a minus sign ( - ) before a term to indicate that the term must not appear results.To reduce a term's value without completely excluding it, use a tilde.

Grouping terms

Use parenthesis ( ) to group terms into subexpressions.

Finding phrases

Use double quotes ( " ) around a phrase to find terms in the exact order, exactly as typed.

Using wildcards

Add an asterisk ( * ) after a term to find objects that include the root word. For example, run* will find:

objects that include the term run
objects that include the term runner
objects that include the term running

Reducing a term's value

Add a tilde ( ~ ) before a term to reduce its value indicate to the ranking of the results.Objects that contain the term will appear lower than other objects (unlike the minus signwhich will completely exclude a term).

Changing relevance value

Add a less than ( < ) or greater than ( > ) sign before a term to change the term's contribution to the overall relevance value assigned to a row.

Impressum & Copyright

Impressum Copyright

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Translation and Texts

Table of contents

Technical Background

Help texts

Program texts

Pakset texts

Factory texts

Addon texts

Information/Tips for Translators

Post new comment

Wiki Syntax

Plugins

Search Help

Default search behavior

Requiring terms

Excluding terms

Grouping terms

Finding phrases

Using wildcards

Reducing a term's value

Changing relevance value

Sidebar

Impressum & Copyright

Search box

Login

Online users

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