Translating (Localizing) Application resources

[slomacuser]

I want to translate application (Claris Works 2.0.1). I have a preinstalled localized version which has registered name and is incomplete etc ...
So I installed fresh US English CW 2.0.1 and replaced; STR# and MENU resoruces with ResEdit. Mostly is tranlsted OK, like menus but there are still some words in dialogs that are in english. The questions is. What resources do I have to change to make it complete?

STR#, MENU ... ? what else? Thanks

 

[Snial]

Buttons names will be in DITLs and DLOGs. The text in the dialog box you're showing looks like it's a DITL. Hope that helps!

 

[slomacuser]

Buttons names will be in DITLs and DLOGs. The text in the dialog box you're showing looks like it's a DITL. Hope that helps!

Great! IT worked so STR#, MENU, DITL, DLOG

 

[Snial]

Great! IT worked so STR#, MENU, DITL, DLOG

View attachment 84084

Cool! You now have Slovenian ClarisWorks 2.0.1!!!! Well done!!!

 

[Snial]

Great! IT worked so STR#, MENU, DITL, DLOG

I have a particular appreciation for CW 2.x. In 1994 the embedded systems company I worked for in Nottingham, UK (Micro Control Systems), sent me to Hannover for the Cebit exhibition (16-23 March 1994). I'd bought my first Mac in 1993, a Performa 400 (LC II) which came with ClarisWorks 1.

So, the date is really critical, because it was just 2 days after Apple launched its first PowerMacintosh computers (the 6100, 7100 and 8100 on March 14). So, Apple was there, doing PowerMac demos (running System 7.1.2). I didn't see much of them, partly because I was working at our stall, but also because it was hard to get close to the demos due to at least a number of people crowding round.

I bought my first 'proper' Mac programming book there: The Pascal Macintosh Programming Primer. However, Apple (or Claris) were giving out CDs of ClarisWorks 2.x so I was able to obtain one for free! I was so pleased! CW 2 was so much better than CW 1. Maybe CW 3 was the high point, but after that it got increasingly cluttered until ClarisWorks 6 (now called AppleWorks).

So it's good to see you've localised it!

 

[slomacuser]

Well I was never fan of ClarisWorks but it is the one of few software that was localized to Serbo-Croatian (YU) and later to Croatian (CR) (We were Yugoslavia till 1992). It was never localised to Slovenian language. There is actually no official translation of anything to Slovenian language sadly only System 7.5 was localised by at a time famous Apple reseller in Slovenia and it was not officially supported by Apple.

Apple offically introduced Slovenian language support for macOS and iOS on September 19, 2024

 

[olePigeon]

@slomacuser You could use ResCompare to create a patch, then you can share the patch program so others can localize their copy.

 

[slomacuser]

Well I was looking at ResCompare but not that deep I could make a patch. So any hint would be helpfull.

 

[joevt]

I had a Japanese app I tried to convert to English. My method was to DeRez everything using the universal RIncludes files, then use a MPW script to extract the strings into a form that google translate could process (with each string having numbers and delimiters that can survive translation), then convert the results back to strings to be merged into the DeRez generated .r files and use Rez to convert those back into the resources in the resource fork of the app. I don't remember the app or where that work is located on my hard drives...

 

[olePigeon]

Well I was looking at ResCompare but not that deep I could make a patch. So any hint would be helpfull.

ResCompare is useful for making a patch after you made the modification with ResEdit. It doesn't do resource editing on its own, it just compares two binaries. You compare the original unmodified binary with the binary you modified, then ResCompare shows you the differences in the resources (no matter how minor.) You then tell it to create a patch based on those differences, select a few settings (such as delete original file, keep original but rename it, or move original to trash), you fill out a description for the patch, then save it.

That's about it. It's super simple.