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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<!--
/*
* $calcurse: manual_en.html,v 1.9 2007/05/12 15:14:05 culot Exp $
*
* Calcurse - text-based organizer
* Copyright (c) 2004-2007 Frederic Culot
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
* (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
* Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
*
* Send your feedback or comments to : calcurse@culot.org
* Calcurse home page : http://culot.org/calcurse
*
*/
-->
<html>
<head>
<title>CALCURSE documentation</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="blue" vlink="navy">
<h1><code>CALCURSE - text-based organizer</code></h1>
<p>
<p><hr><p>
<h1>Table of Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a>
<li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#overview_history">Creation history</a>
<li><a href="#overview_features">Important features</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#install">Installation</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#install_requirements">Requirements</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#install_requirements_ncurses"><code>ncurses</code> library</a>
<li><a href="#install_requirements_gettext"><code>gettext</code> library</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#install_process">Install process</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#basics"><code>calcurse</code> basics</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#basics_invocation">Invocation</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#basics_invocation_commandline">Command line arguments</a>
<li><a href="#basics_invocation_variable">Environment variable for i18n</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#basics_interface">User interface</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#basics_interface_noninteractive">Non-interactive mode</a>
<li><a href="#basics_interface_interactive">Interactive mode</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#basics_files"><code>calcurse</code> files</a>
<li><a href="#basics_help">Online help</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#options">Options</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#options_general">General options</a>
<li><a href="#options_colors">Color themes</a>
<li><a href="#options_layout">Layout configuration</a>
<li><a href="#options_notify">Notify-bar settings</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#known_bugs">Known bugs</a>
<li><a href="#bugs">Reporting bugs and feedback</a>
<li><a href="#contribute">How to contribute?</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#contribute_documentation">Translating documentation</a>
<li><a href="#contribute_i18n"><code>calcurse</code> i18n</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#contribute_i18n_overview">Overview</a>
<li><a href="#contribute_i18n_translator">Translator tasks</a>
<li><a href="#contribute_i18n_po-files">po-files</a>
</ul>
</ul>
<li><a href="#links">Links</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#links_homepage"><code>calcurse</code> homepage</a>
<li><a href="#links_list"><code>calcurse</code> announce list</a>
<li><a href="#links_rss"><code>calcurse</code> RSS feed</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#thanks">Thanks</a>
</ul>
<p><hr><p>
<a name="intro"></a><h1>Introduction</a></h1>
<p>
<code>calcurse</code> is a text-based calendar and scheduling application. It helps
keeping track of events, appointments and everyday tasks.
A configurable notification system reminds user of upcoming deadlines,
and the curses based interface can be customized to suit user needs.
All of the commands are documented within an online help system.
<a name="overview"></a><h1>Overview</h1>
<a name="overview_history"></a><h2>Creation history</h2>
<p>
I started thinking about this project when I was finishing
my Ph.D. in Astrophysics... It started to be a little hard
to organize myself, and I really needed a good tool to help
me in that difficult task ;)<br>
I like programs which use Text User Interfaces, because they
are simple, fast, portable and efficient, so I thought about
working on coding a simple calendar using such an interface.
Moreover, I wanted to go on learning the <code>C</code>
language, which I only used for a while during my undergraduate
studies. So I thought that would be the good project to start
in order to get organized and to learn about a few
<code>C</code> things !
Unfortunately, I finished my Ph.D. before finishing
<code>calcurse</code>,
but anyway, I still wanted to work on it, hoping it would
be helpful to other people. So here it is...<br>
<br>
But why 'calcurse' anyway ? Well, it is simply the
concatenation of 'CALendar' and 'nCURSEs', the name of the
library used to build the user interface.
<a name="overview_features"></a><h2>Important features</h2>
<p>
<code>Calcurse</code> is multi-platform and intended to be
lightweight, fast and reliable. It is to be used inside a
console or terminal, locally or on a distant machine within
an ssh (or similar) connection. <br>
<code>Calcurse</code> can be run in two different modes :
interactive or non-interactive mode. The first mode allows
oneself to view its own personal organizer almost everywhere,
thanks to the text-based interface.
The second mode permits to easily build reminders just by adding
<code>calcurse</code> with appropriate command line arguments
inside a cron tab or within a shell init script.<br>
Moreover, <code>calcurse</code> was created with the end-user
in mind, and tends to be as friendly as possible. This means
a complete on-line help system, together with having all of
the possible actions displayed at any time inside a status bar.
The user interface is also configurable, and one can choose
between several color and layout combinations.
Last, a configurable notification system reminds user of upcoming
appointments.
<a name="install"></a><h1>Installation</h1>
<a name="install_requirements"></a><h2>Requirements</h2>
<a name="install_requirements_ncurses"></a><h3><code>ncurses</code> library</h3>
<p>
<code>Calcurse</code> requires only a <code>C</code> compiler, such as
<code>cc</code> or <code>gcc</code>, and the <code>ncurses</code>
library.
It would be very surprising not to have a valid <code>ncurses</code>
library already installed on your computer, but if not, you can
find it at the following url :<br>
<pre>
http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/
</pre>
<a name="install_requirements_gettext"></a><h3><code>gettext</code> library</h3>
<p>
<code>calcurse</code> supports internationalization
(<em>i18n</em> hereafter) through the <code>gettext</code>
utilities. This means <code>calcurse</code> can produce
multi-lingual messages if compiled with native language
support (i.e. <em>NLS</em>). However, <em>NLS</em> is
optionnal and if you do not want to have support for
multi-lingual messages, you can disable this feature. This is
done by giving the <code>--disable-nls</code> option to
<code>configure</code> (see section <a
href="#install_process">Install process</a>). <br>
To check if the <code>gettext</code> utilities are
installed on your system, you can search for the
<code>libintl.h</code> header file for instance:
<pre>
locate libintl.h
</pre>
If this header file is not found, then you can obtain the
<code>gettext</code> sources at the following url :<br>
<pre>
http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gettext/
</pre>
<u>Note:</u> Even if <code>libintl.h</code> is found on your
system, it can be wise to specify its location during the <a
href="#install_process">install process</a>, by using the
<code>--with-libintl-prefix</code> option with
<code>configure</code>. Indeed, the <code>configure</code>
could fail to locate this library if installed in an uncommon
place.
<a name="install_process"></a><h2>Install process</h2>
<p>
First you need to gunzip and untar the source archive:
<pre>
tar zxvf calcurse-1.8.tar.gz
</pre>
Once you meet the requirements and have extracted the archive,
the install process is quite simple, and follows the standard
three steps process:
<OL>
<li><code>./configure</code>
<li><code>make</code>
<li><code>make install</code> (may require root privilege)
</OL>
Use <code>./configure --help</code> to obtain a list of
possible options.
<a name="basics"></a><h1><code>calcurse</code> basics</h1>
<a name="basics_invocation"></a><h2>Invocation</h2>
<a name="basics_invocation_commandline"></a><h3>Command line arguments</h3>
<p>
<code>calcurse</code> takes the following options from the
command line (both short and long options are supported):
<p>
<dl compact>
<dt><code>-a, --appointment</code>
<dd>
Print the appointments and events for the current day and exit.<br>
<u>Note:</u> the calendar from which to read the appointments
can be specified using the '-c' flag.<br>
<br>
<dt><code>-c <file>, --calendar <file></code>
<dd>
Specify the calendar file to use.<br>
The default calendar is <code>~/.calcurse/apts</code>
(see section <a href="#basics_files"><code>calcurse</code> files</a>).<br>
<br>
<dt><code>-d <date|num>, --day <date|num></code>
<dd>
Print the appointments for the given date or for the
given number of upcoming days, depending on the argument
format. Two possible formats are supported:
<ul>
<li>a date of the form 'mm/dd/yyyy'.
<li>a number 'n'.
</ul>
In the first case, the appointment list for the
specified date will be returned, while in the second
case the appointment list for the 'n' upcoming days
will be returned.<br>
As an example, typing <code>calcurse -d 3</code>
will display your appointments for today, tomorrow,
and the day after tomorrow.<br>
<u>Note:</u> as for the '-a' flag, the calendar from
which to read the appointments can be specified using
the '-c' flag.<br>
<br>
<dt><code>-h, --help</code>
<dd>
Print a short help text describing the supported
command-line options, and exit.<br>
<br>
<dt><code>-n, --next</code>
<dd>
Print the next appointment within upcoming 24 hours and exit.<br>
The indicated time is the number of hours and minutes left
before this appointment.<br>
<u>Note:</u> the calendar from which to read the appointments
can be specified using the '-c' flag.<br>
<br>
<dt><code>-t[num], --todo[=num]</code>
<dd>
Print the 'todo' list and exit. If the optional number
<code>num</code> is given, then only todos having a priority
equal to <code>num</code> will be returned.<br>
<u>Note:</u> proprity number must be between 1 (highest) and
9 (lowest).<br>
<br>
<dt><code>-v, --version</code>
<dd>
Display <code>calcurse</code> version and exit.<br>
<br>
<dt><code>-x, --export</code>
<dd>
Export user data to iCalendar format. Events, appointments and
todos are converted and echoed to stdout.<br>
<u>Note:</u> redirect standard output to export data to a file,
by issuing a command such as:
<pre>
$ calcurse --export > my_data.ics
</pre>
</DL>
<a name="basics_invocation_variable"></a><h3>Environment variable for i18n</h3>
<p>
<code>calcurse</code> can be compiled with native language
support (see <a
href="#install_requirements_gettext"><code>gettext</code>
library</a>). Thus, if you wish to have messages displayed
into your native language, first make sure it is available by
looking at the <code>po/LINGUAS</code> file.
This file indicates the set of available languages by showing
the two-letters corresponding code (for exemple, <em>fr</em>
stands for french). If you do not find your language, it
would be greatly appreciated if you could help translating
<code>calcurse</code> (see the <a href="#contribute">How to
contribute?</a> section).<br>
If your language is available, run
<code>calcurse</code> with the following command:
<pre>
LC_ALL=fr_FR calcurse
</pre>
where <em>fr_FR</em> is the locale name in this exemple, but
should be replaced by the locale corresponding to the desired
language.<br>
You should also specify the charset to be used, because in some
cases the accents and such are not displayed correctly.
This charset is indicated at the beginning of the po file
corresponding to the desired language. For instance, you can see
in the fr.po file that it uses the iso-8859-1 charset, so you
could run <code>calcurse</code> using the following command:
<pre>
LC_ALL=fr_FR.ISO8859-1 calcurse
</pre>
<a name="basics_interface"></a><h2>User interface</h2>
<a name="basics_interface_noninteractive"></a><h3>Non-interactive mode</h3>
<p>
When called with at least one of the following arguments:<br>
<code>-a</code>, <code>-d</code>, <code>-h</code>,
<code>-n</code>, <code>-t</code>, <code>-v</code>,
<code>-x</code><br>
<code>calcurse</code> is started in non-interactive mode.
This means the desired information will be displayed, and
after that, <code>calcurse</code> simply quits and you are
driven back to the shell prompt.<br>
That way, one can add a line such as
<code>'calcurse --todo --appointment'</code>
in its init config file to display at logon the list of tasks
and appointments scheduled for the current day.
<a name="basics_interface_interactive"></a><h3>Interactive mode</h3>
<p>
When called without any argument or only with the
<code>-c</code> option, <code>calcurse</code> is started in
interactive mode. In this mode, you are shown an interface
containing three different panels which you can browse using
the 'TAB' key, plus a notification bar and a status bar
(see figure below).
<pre>
appointment panel---. .---calendar panel
| |
v v
+------------------------------------++----------------------------+
| Appointments || Calendar |
|------------------------------------||----------------------------|
| April 6, 2006 || April 2006 |
| ||Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun |
| || 1 2 |
| || 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
| || 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 |
| || 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 |
| || 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 |
| || |
| |+----------------------------+
| |+----------------------------+
| || ToDo | todo
| ||----------------------------| panel
| || | |
| || | |
| || |<--.
| || |
+------------------------------------++----------------------------+
|---[ Mon 2006-11-22 | 10:11:43 ]---(apts)----> 01:20 :: lunch <---|<--.
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ notify-bar
| ? Help R Redraw H/L -/+1 Day G GoTo C Config |
| Q Quit S Save J/K -/+1 Week Tab Chg View |<-.
+------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
|
status bar
</pre>
The first panel represents a calendar which allows to highlight
a particular day, the second one contains the list of the events
and appointments on that day, and the last one contains a list
of tasks to do but which are not assigned to any specific day.<br>
At the very bottom of the screen there is a status bar, which
indicates the possible actions and the corresponding keystrokes.<br>
Just above this status bar is the notify-bar, which indicates
from left to right : the current date, the current time, the
calendar file currently in use (apts on the above example, which
is the default calendar file, see the following section), and
the next appointment within the upcoming 24 hours. Here it says
that it will be lunch time in one hour and twenty minutes.
<p>
<u>Note:</u> Some actions, such as editing or adding an item,
require to type in some text. This is done with the help of
the built-in input line editor.<br>
Within this editor, if a line is longer than the screen width,
a '>', '*', or '<' character is displayed in the last
column indicating that there are more character after, before and
after, or before the current position, respectively. The line is
scrolled horizontally as necessary.<br>
Moreover, some editing commands are bound to particular control
characters. Hereafter are indicated the available editing commands
('^' stands for the control key):<br>
<ul>
<li><b>^a</b>: moves the cursor to the beginning of the input line
<li><b>^b</b>: moves the cursor backward
<li><b>^d</b>: deletes one character forward
<li><b>^e</b>: moves the cursor to the end of the input line
<li><b>^f</b>: moves the cursor forward
<li><b>^h</b>: deletes one character backward
<li><b>^k</b>: deletes the input from the cursor to the end of the line
<li><b>ESCAPE</b>: cancels the editing
</ul>
<a name="basics_files"></a><h2><code>calcurse</code> files</h2>
<p>
The following structure is created in your <code>$HOME</code>
directory the first time <code>calcurse</code> is run :
<pre>
$HOME/.calcurse/
|___conf
|___apts
|___todo
</pre>
The <em>conf</em> file contains the user configuration.<br>
The <em>apts</em> file contains all of the events and
user's appointments.<br>
The <em>todo</em> file contains the todo list.
<a name="basics_help"></a><h2>Online help</h2>
<p>
At any time, the built-in help system can be invoked by
pressing the '?' key. Once viewing the help screens,
informations on a specific command can be accessed by pressing
the keystroke corresponding to that command.
<a name="options"></a><h1>Options</h1>
<p>
All of the <code>calcurse</code> parameters are configurable from the
Configuration menu available when pressing 'C'. You are then
driven to a submenu with four possible choices : pressing 'C'
again will lead you to the Color scheme configuration,
pressing 'L' allows you to choose the layout of the main
<code>calcurse</code> screen (in other words, where to put the three
different panels on screen), pressing 'G' permits you to choose between
different general options, and last you can modify the notify-bar
settings by pressing 'N'.
<a name="options_general"></a><h2>General options</h2>
<p>
These options control <code>calcurse</code> general behavior,
as described below:
<ul>
<li><code>auto_save</code> (default: <em>yes</em>)<br>
This option allows to automatically save the user's data
(if set to <em>yes</em>) when quitting.<br>
<em>warning:</em> No data will be automatically saved if
<code>auto_save</code> is set to <em>no</em>. This means
the user must press 'S' (for saving) in order to retrieve its
modifications.<br>
<br>
<li><code>confirm_quit</code> (default: <em>yes</em>)<br>
If set to <em>yes</em>, confirmation is required before
quitting, otherwise pressing 'Q' will cause <code>calcurse</code>
to quit without prompting for user confirmation.<br>
<br>
<li><code>confirm_delete</code> (default: <em>yes</em>)<br>
If this option is set to <em>yes</em>, pressing 'D' for
deleting an item (either a <em>todo</em>, <em>appointment</em>,
or <em>event</em>), will lead to a prompt asking for user
confirmation before removing the selected item from the list.
Otherwise, no confirmation will be needed before deleting the
item.<br>
<br>
<li><code>skip_system_dialogs</code> (default: <em>no</em>)<br>
Setting this option to <em>yes</em> will result in skipping the
system dialogs related to the saving and loading of data.
This can be useful to speed up the input/output processes.<br>
<br>
<li><code>skip_progress_bar</code> (default: <em>no</em>)<br>
If set to <em>yes</em>, this will cause the disappearing of the
progress bar which is usually shown when saving data to file.
If set to <em>no</em>, this bar will be displayed, together with
the name of the file being saved
(see section <a href="#basics_files"><code>calcurse</code> files</a>).<br>
<br>
<li><code>week_begins_on_monday</code> (default: <em>yes</em>)<br>
One can choose between Monday and Sunday as the first day of the
week. If the option <em>week_begins_on_monday</em> is set to
<em>yes</em>, Monday will be first in the calendar view. Else if
the option is set to <em>no</em>, then Sunday will be the first
day of the week.
</ul>
<a name="options_colors"></a><h2>Color themes</h2>
<p>
<code>calcurse</code> color theme can be customized to suit user's
needs. To change the default theme, the configuration page
displays possible choices for foreground and background colors.
Using arrows or calcurse displacement keys to move, and 'X' or space
to select a color, user can preview the theme which will be applied.
It is possible to keep the terminal's default colors by selecting the
corresponding choice in the list.
<p>
The chosen color theme will then be applied to the panel borders,
to the titles, to the keystrokes, and to general informations
displayed inside status bar. A black and white theme is also
available, in order to support non-color terminals.<br>
<u>Notes:</u>
<ul>
<li> Depending on your terminal type and on the value of the
<code>$TERM</code> environnement variable, color could or
could not be supported. An error message will appear if you
try to change colors whereas your terminal does not support
this feature.<br>
<br>
<li> If you do know your terminal supports colors but could
not get <code>calcurse</code> to display them, try to set your
<code>$TERM</code> variable to another value (such as
<em>xterm-xfree86</em> for instance).
</ul>
<a name="options_layout"></a><h2>Layout configuration</h2>
<p>
The layout corresponds to the position of the panels inside
<code>calcurse</code> screen. The default layout makes the
calendar panel to be displayed on the top-right corner of the
terminal, the todo panel on the bottom-right corner, while the
appointment panel is displayed on the left hand-side of the
screen (see the figure in section
<a href="#basics_interface_interactive">Interactive mode</a>
for an exemple of the default layout).<br>
By choosing another layout in the configuration screen, user
can customize <code>calcurse</code> appearence to best suit
his needs by placing the different panels where needed.
<a name="options_notify"></a><h2>Notify-bar settings</h2>
<p>
The following options are used to modify the notify-bar behavior:
<ul>
<li><code>notify-bar_show</code> (default: <em>yes</em>)<br>
This option indicates if you want the notify-bar to be displayed
or not.<br>
<br>
<li><code>notify-bar_date</code> (default: <em>%a %F</em>)<br>
With this option, you can specify the format to be used to
display the current date inside the notification bar. You can
see all of the possible formats by typing <tt>man 3 strftime</tt>
inside a terminal.<br>
<br>
<li><code>notify-bar_time</code> (default: <em>%T</em>)<br>
With this option, you can specify the format to be used to
display the current time inside the notification bar. You can
see all of the possible formats by typing <tt>man 3 strftime</tt>
inside a terminal.<br>
<br>
<li><code>notify-bar_warning</code> (default: <em>300</em>)<br>
When there is an appointment which is flagged as 'important'
within the next 'notify-bar_warning'
seconds, the display of that appointment inside the notify-bar
starts to blink.
Moreover, the command defined by the <em>notify-bar_command</em>
option will be launched.
That way, the user is warned and knows there
will be soon an upcoming appointment.
<br>
<br>
<li>
<code>notify-bar_command</code> (default: <em>printf '\a'</em>)<br>
This option indicates which command is to be launched when there is an
upcoming appointment flagged as 'important'. This command will be
passed to the user's shell which will interpret it. To know what shell
must be used, the content of the <code>$SHELL</code> environment variable
is used. If this variable is not set, <code>/bin/sh</code> is used
instead.<br>
<u>Example:</u> Say the <code>mail</code> command is available on
the user's system, one can use the following command to get notified by
mail of an upcoming appointment (the appointment description will also
be mentioned in the mail body):
<pre>
calcurse --next | mail -s "[calcurse] upcoming appointment!" user@host.com
</pre>
</ul>
<a name="known_bugs"></a><h1>Known bugs</h1>
<p>
Incorrect highlighting of items appear when using calcurse
black and white theme together with a <code>$TERM</code>
variable set to <em>xterm-color</em>.
To fix this bug, and as advised by Thomas E. Dickey
(<code>xterm</code> maintainer), <em>xterm-xfree86</em>
should be used instead of <em>xterm-color</em> to set
the <code>$TERM</code> variable:<br>
<blockquote>
"The xterm-color value for $TERM is a bad choice for XFree86 xterm
because it is commonly used for a terminfo entry which happens to
not support bce. Use the xterm-xfree86 entry which is distributed
with XFree86 xterm (or the similar one distributed with ncurses)."
</blockquote>
<a name="bugs"></a><h1>Reporting bugs and feedback</h1>
<p>
Please send bug reports and feedback to:
<pre>
calcurse@culot.org
</pre>
or to the author:
<pre>
frederic@culot.org
</pre>
<a name="contribute"></a><h1>How to contribute?</h1>
<p>
If you would like to contribute to the project,
you can first send your feedback on what you like or dislike,
and if there are features you miss in <code>calcurse</code>.
For now on, possible contributions concern the translation
of <code>calcurse</code> messages and documentation. <br>
<br>
<u>Note:</u> Any help in getting <code>calcurse</code>
internationalized would be very welcomed, but before
contributing, send a mail to
<code>calcurse-i18n@culot.org</code> to know if someone
already started the translation process into your language.
<a name="contribute_documentation"></a><h2>Translating documentation</h2>
<p>
The <em>doc/</em> directory of the source package already
contains translated version of <code>calcurse</code>
manual. However, if the manual is not yet available into your
native language, it would be appreciated if you could help
translating it.<br>
To do so, just copy one of the existing manual
file to <code>manual_XX.html</code>, where <em>XX</em>
identifies your language. Then translate this newly created
file and send it to the author (see <a href="#bugs">Reporting
bugs and feeback</a>), so that it can be included in the
next <code>calcurse</code> release.
<a name="contribute_i18n"></a><h2><code>calcurse</code> i18n</h2>
<p>
As already mentioned, <code>gettext</code> utilities are used
by <code>calcurse</code> to produce multi-lingual
messages. This section provides informations about how to
translate those messages into your native language. However,
this howto is deliberately incomplete, focusing on working
with <code>gettext</code> for <code>calcurse</code>
specifically. For more comprehensive informations or to grasp
the Big Picture of Native Language Support, you should refer
to the <code>GNU gettext</code> manual at:
<pre>
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/
</pre>
Basically, three different people get involved in the
translation chain: coders, language coordinator, and
translators. After a quick overview of how things work, the
translator tasks will be described hereafter.
<a name="contribute_i18n_overview"></a><h3>Overview</h3>
<p>
To be able to display texts in the native language of the
user, two steps are required: <em>internationalization</em>
(i18n) and <em>localization</em> (l10n). i18n is about making
<code>calcurse</code> support multiple languages. It is
performed by coders, who will mark translatable texts and
provide a way to display them translated at runtime. l10n is
about making the i18n'ed <code>calcurse</code> adapt to the
specific language of the user, ie translating the strings
previously marked by the developers, and setting the
environment correctly for <code>calcurse</code> to use the
result of this translation.<br> <br>
So, translatable strings are first marked by the coders within
the <code>C</code> source files, then gathered in a template
file (<em>calcurse.pot</em> - the <em>pot</em> extension
meaning <em>portable object template</em>). The content of
this template file is then merged with the translation files
for each language (<em>fr.po</em> for french, for instance -
with <em>po</em> standing for <em>portable object</em>, ie
meant to be read and edited by humans). A given translation
team will take this file, translate its strings, and send it
back to the developers. At compilation time, a binary version
of this file (for efficiency reasons) will be produced
(<em>fr.mo</em> - <em>mo</em> stands for <em>machine
object</em>, ie meant to be read by programs), and then
installed. Then <code>calcurse</code> will use this file at
runtime, translating the strings according to the locale
settings of the user.
<a name="contribute_i18n_translator"></a><h3>Translator tasks</h3>
<p>
Suppose someone wants to initiate the translation of a new
language. Here are the steps to follow:
<ul>
<li>First, find out what the locale name is. For instance, for
french, it is 'fr_FR', or simply 'fr'. This is the value the
user will have to put in his <code>LC_ALL</code> environment
variable for software to be translated (see <a
href="#basics_invocation_variable">Environment variable for
i18n</a>).<br>
<br>
<li>Then, go into the <em>po/</em> directory, and create a new po-file
from the template file using the following command:
<pre>
'msginit -i calcurse.pot -o fr.po -l fr --no-translator'
</pre>
If you do not have <code>msginit</code> installed on your
system, simply copy the <em>calcurse.pot</em> file to
<em>fr.po</em> and edit the header by hand.<br>
Now, having this <em>fr.po</em> file, the translator is ready
to begin.
</ul>
<a name="contribute_i18n_po-files"></a><h3>po-files</h3>
<p>
The format of the po-files is quite simple. Indeed, po-files
are made of four things:
<ol>
<li><em>location lines:</em> tells you where the strings can
be seen (name of file and line number), in case you need to
see a bit of context.
<li><em>msgid lines:</em> the strings to translate.
<li><em>msgstr lines:</em> the translated strings.
<li><em>lines prefixed with '#':</em> comments (some with a
special meaning, as we will see below).
</ol>
Basically, all you have to do is fill the <em>msgstr</em>
lines with the translation of the above <em>msgid</em>
line.
<p>
<u>A few notes:</u>
<ul>
<li><em>Fuzzy strings</em><br>
You will meet strings marked with a <code>"#, fuzzy"</code>
comment. <code>calcurse</code> won't use the translations of
such strings until you do something about them. A string
being fuzzy means either that the string has already been
translated but has since been changed in the sources of the
program, or that this is a new string for which
<code>gettext</code> made a 'wild guess' for the translation,
based on other strings in the file. It means you have to
review the translation. Sometimes, the original string has
changed just because a typo has been fixed. In this case, you
won't have to change anything. But sometimes, the translation
will no longer be accurate and needs to be changed. Once you
are done and happy with the translation, just remove the
<code>"#, fuzzy"</code> line, and the translation will be used
again in <code>calcurse</code>.<br>
<br>
<li><em>c-format strings and special sequences</em><br>
Some strings have the following comment: <code>"#,
c-format"</code>. This tells that parts of the string to
translate have a special meaning for the program, and that you
should leave them alone. For instance, %-sequences, like
<code>"%s"</code>. These means that <code>calcurse</code> will
replace them with another string. So it is important it
remains. There are also \-sequences, like <code>\n</code> or
<code>\t</code>. Leave them, too. The former represents an end
of line, the latter a tabulation.<br>
<br>
<li><em>Translations can be wrapped</em><br>
If lines are too long, you can just break them like this:
<pre>
msgid ""
"some very long line"
"another line"
</pre>
<li><em>po-file header</em><br>
At the very beginning of the po-file, the first string form a
header, where various kind of information has to be filled
in. Most important one is the charset. It should resemble
<pre>
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n"
</pre>
You should also fill in the Last-Translator field, so that
potential contributors can contact you if they want to join
you in the translation team, or have remarks/typo fixes to
give about the translations. You can either just give your
name/nick, or add an email address, for exemple:
<pre>
"Last-Translator: Frederic Culot <frederic@culot.org>\n"
</pre>
<li><em>Comments</em><br>
Adding comments (lines begining with the '#' character) can be
a good way to point out problems or translation difficulties
to proofreaders or other members of your team.<br>
<br>
<li><em>Strings size</em><br>
<code>calcurse</code> is a curses/console program, thus it can
be heavily dependant on the terminal size (number of
columns). You should think about this when translating. Often,
a string must fit into a single line (standard length is 80
characters). Don't translate blindly, try to look where your
string will be displayed to adapt your translation.<br>
<br>
<li><em>A few useful tools</em><br>
The po-file format is very simple, and the file can be edited
with a standard text editor. But if you prefer, there are few
specialized tools you may find convenient for translating:
<ul>
<li><code>poEdit</code> (<a
href="http://www.poedit.org/" target="_blank">
http://www.poedit.org/</a>)
<li><code>KBabel</code> (<a
href="http://i18n.kde.org/tools/kbabel/" target="_blank">
http://i18n.kde.org/tools/kbabel/</a>)
<li><code>GTranslator</code> (<a
href="http://gtranslator.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">
http://gtranslator.sourceforge.net/</a>)
<li><code>Emacs</code> po mode
<li><code>Vim</code> po mode
</ul>
<br>
<li><em>And finally</em><br>
I hope you'll have fun contributing to a more
internationalized world. :) If you have any more questions,
don't hesitate to contact me at <em>frederic@culot.org</em>.
</ul>
<a name="links"></a><h1>Links</h1>
<p>
This section contains links and references that may be of
interest to you.
<a name="links_homepage"></a><h2><code>calcurse</code> homepage</h2>
<p>
The <code>calcurse</code> homepage can be found at
<pre>
http://culot.org/calcurse
</pre>
<a name="links_list"></a><h2><code>calcurse</code> announce list</h2>
<p>
If you are interested in the project and want to be warned
when a new release comes out, you can subscribe to the
<code>calcurse</code> announce list. In doing so, you will
receive an email as soon as a new feature appears in
<code>calcurse</code>.<br>
To subscribe to this list, send a message to
<code>calcurse-announce@culot.org</code> with "subscribe"
in the subject field.
<a name="links_rss"></a><h2><code>calcurse</code> RSS feed</h2>
<p>
Another possibility to get warned when new releases come out
is to follow the RSS feed at:
<pre>
http://culot.org/calcurse/news_rss.xml
</pre>
This RSS feed is updated each time a new version of calcurse is
available, describing newly added features.
<a name="thanks"></a><h1>Thanks</a></h1>
<p>
Its time now to thank other people without whom this program
would not exist! So here is a list of contributing persons I
would like to thank :
<ul>
<li>Alex for its patches, help and advices with <code>C</code> programming
<li>Gwen for testing and general discussions about how to
improve <code>calcurse</code>
<li>Herbert for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for FreeBSD
<li>Zul for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for NetBSD
<li>Wain for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Archlinux
<li>Kevin, Ryan, and fEnIo for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Debian
and Ubuntu
<li>Steffen for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Archlinux
<li>Pascal for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Slackware
<li>Alexandre and Markus for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for Mac OsX
and Darwin
<li>Igor for packaging <code>calcurse</code> for ALT Linux
<li>Joel for its calendar script which inspired <code>calcurse</code>
calendar view
<li>Michael Schulz and Chris M. for the german translation of
<code>calcurse</code> and its manual
<li>Jose Lopez for the spanish translation of
<code>calcurse</code> and its manual
<li>Neil Williams for the english translation
<li>Tony for its patch which helped improving the
recur_item_inday() function
<li>people who write softwares I like and which inspired me,
especially :
<ul>
<li><code>vim</code> for the displacement keys
<li><code>orpheus</code> and <code>abook</code> for documentation
<li><code>pine</code> and <code>aptitude</code>
for the text user interface
</ul>
</ul>
<br>
And last, many many thanks to all of the <code>calcurse</code>
users who sent me their feedback.
<hr>
<small><em>
Copyright (c) 2004-2007 Frédéric Culot<br>
Calcurse version 1.8 - Last change: April 15, 2007
<em></small>
</body>
</html>
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