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+<HTML>
+<HEAD>
+<!-- This HTML file has been created by texi2html 1.51
+ from gettext.texi on 19 April 2001 -->
+
+<TITLE>GNU gettext utilities - 12 Concluding Remarks</TITLE>
+</HEAD>
+<BODY>
+Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_11.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_13.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_14.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
+<P><HR><P>
+
+
+<H1><A NAME="SEC84" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC84">12 Concluding Remarks</A></H1>
+
+<P>
+We would like to conclude this GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> manual by presenting
+an history of the Translation Project so far. We finally give
+a few pointers for those who want to do further research or readings
+about Native Language Support matters.
+
+</P>
+
+
+
+<H2><A NAME="SEC85" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC85">12.1 History of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE></A></H2>
+
+<P>
+Internationalization concerns and algorithms have been informally
+and casually discussed for years in GNU, sometimes around GNU
+<CODE>libc</CODE>, maybe around the incoming <CODE>Hurd</CODE>, or otherwise
+(nobody clearly remembers). And even then, when the work started for
+real, this was somewhat independently of these previous discussions.
+
+</P>
+<P>
+This all began in July 1994, when Patrick D'Cruze had the idea and
+initiative of internationalizing version 3.9.2 of GNU <CODE>fileutils</CODE>.
+He then asked Jim Meyering, the maintainer, how to get those changes
+folded into an official release. That first draft was full of
+<CODE>#ifdef</CODE>s and somewhat disconcerting, and Jim wanted to find
+nicer ways. Patrick and Jim shared some tries and experimentations
+in this area. Then, feeling that this might eventually have a deeper
+impact on GNU, Jim wanted to know what standards were, and contacted
+Richard Stallman, who very quickly and verbally described an overall
+design for what was meant to become <CODE>glocale</CODE>, at that time.
+
+</P>
+<P>
+Jim implemented <CODE>glocale</CODE> and got a lot of exhausting feedback
+from Patrick and Richard, of course, but also from Mitchum DSouza
+(who wrote a <CODE>catgets</CODE>-like package), Roland McGrath, maybe David
+MacKenzie, Fran@,{c}ois Pinard, and Paul Eggert, all pushing and
+pulling in various directions, not always compatible, to the extent
+that after a couple of test releases, <CODE>glocale</CODE> was torn apart.
+
+</P>
+<P>
+While Jim took some distance and time and became dad for a second
+time, Roland wanted to get GNU <CODE>libc</CODE> internationalized, and
+got Ulrich Drepper involved in that project. Instead of starting
+from <CODE>glocale</CODE>, Ulrich rewrote something from scratch, but
+more conformant to the set of guidelines who emerged out of the
+<CODE>glocale</CODE> effort. Then, Ulrich got people from the previous
+forum to involve themselves into this new project, and the switch
+from <CODE>glocale</CODE> to what was first named <CODE>msgutils</CODE>, renamed
+<CODE>nlsutils</CODE>, and later <CODE>gettext</CODE>, became officially accepted
+by Richard in May 1995 or so.
+
+</P>
+<P>
+Let's summarize by saying that Ulrich Drepper wrote GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
+in April 1995. The first official release of the package, including
+PO mode, occurred in July 1995, and was numbered 0.7. Other people
+contributed to the effort by providing a discussion forum around
+Ulrich, writing little pieces of code, or testing. These are quoted
+in the <CODE>THANKS</CODE> file which comes with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
+distribution.
+
+</P>
+<P>
+While this was being done, Fran@,{c}ois adapted half a dozen of
+GNU packages to <CODE>glocale</CODE> first, then later to <CODE>gettext</CODE>,
+putting them in pretest, so providing along the way an effective
+user environment for fine tuning the evolving tools. He also took
+the responsibility of organizing and coordinating the Translation
+Project. After nearly a year of informal exchanges between people from
+many countries, translator teams started to exist in May 1995, through
+the creation and support by Patrick D'Cruze of twenty unmoderated
+mailing lists for that many native languages, and two moderated
+lists: one for reaching all teams at once, the other for reaching
+all willing maintainers of internationalized free software packages.
+
+</P>
+<P>
+Fran@,{c}ois also wrote PO mode in June 1995 with the collaboration
+of Greg McGary, as a kind of contribution to Ulrich's package.
+He also gave a hand with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> Texinfo manual.
+
+</P>
+
+
+<H2><A NAME="SEC86" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC86">12.2 Related Readings</A></H2>
+
+<P>
+Eugene H. Dorr (<TT>`dorre@well.com'</TT>) maintains an interesting
+bibliography on internationalization matters, called
+<CITE>Internationalization Reference List</CITE>, which is available as:
+
+<PRE>
+ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/doc/i18n-books.txt
+</PRE>
+
+<P>
+Michael Gschwind (<TT>`mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at'</TT>) maintains a
+Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list, entitled <CITE>Programming for
+Internationalisation</CITE>. This FAQ discusses writing programs which
+can handle different language conventions, character sets, etc.;
+and is applicable to all character set encodings, with particular
+emphasis on ISO 8859-1. It is regularly published in Usenet
+groups <TT>`comp.unix.questions'</TT>, <TT>`comp.std.internat'</TT>,
+<TT>`comp.software.international'</TT>, <TT>`comp.lang.c'</TT>,
+<TT>`comp.windows.x'</TT>, <TT>`comp.std.c'</TT>, <TT>`comp.answers'</TT>
+and <TT>`news.answers'</TT>. The home location of this document is:
+
+<PRE>
+ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit/ISO-programming
+</PRE>
+
+<P>
+Patrick D'Cruze (<TT>`pdcruze@li.org'</TT>) wrote a tutorial about NLS
+matters, and Jochen Hein (<TT>`Hein@student.tu-clausthal.de'</TT>) took
+over the responsibility of maintaining it. It may be found as:
+
+<PRE>
+ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/nls/catalogs/Incoming/...
+ ...locale-tutorial-0.8.txt.gz
+</PRE>
+
+<P>
+This site is mirrored in:
+
+<PRE>
+ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/
+</PRE>
+
+<P>
+A French version of the same tutorial should be findable at:
+
+<PRE>
+ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/french/docs/
+</PRE>
+
+<P>
+together with French translations of many Linux-related documents.
+
+</P>
+<P><HR><P>
+Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_11.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_13.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_14.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
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+</HTML>