Translations
------------


Translations work by converting all the strings in a 4GL into IDs.
These IDs are then looked up in standard help files at runtime depending on the
value of 

	options language file "..."

The language file can be a variable (which can be set from a database or environment variable) or a string constant.


In order to use language files - you must :



1) Create the original string -> numeric encodings

2) create the numeric->string for the target language.


Create the string to numeric encodings
--------------------------------------

This involves creating a source language file, the easiest way is to use the builtin string exporter function:

 	export DUMPSTRINGS=ident

Once this is done - run 4glc on your target 4gl :

	4glc myfile.4gl

This will create a file called 'strings.lang' - edit this file to remove any strings you dont want translating (eg SQL!)
and rename it (so it isn't overwritten inadvertantly).

	mv strings.lang source.lang


You can specify the new name of the file by setting the TRANSLATEFILE environment variable, eg

	export TRANSLATEFILE=source.lang


Now - when you run 4glc with the TRANSLATEFILE set, it will look in the specified file for each string it comes across.
If it discovers an entry - it is replaced with an ID number.




Create the numeric to string for target language.
------------------------------------------------
For each of the strings in the source.lang file - you'll need to create a help file entry with the same ID.
Eg for 

Hello:>0
World:>1


For english you would have english.msg :
.0
Hello
.1
World

For french.msg it may be :
.0
Bonjour
.1
Monde


Compile up the help messages (using amkmessage) and then you good to go - just use the options language file to specify which of the help files to use...