RSC_TRAN, a tool to help in RSC translations.
Version 1.03 (c) Vassilis Papathanassiou from Jul 1999

28 Sep 1999
-----------
A buffer overrun could occur for lines longer than 120 chars in
the translated text. Thanks to Peter Slegg and 'Thothy' for
reporting this bug.

02 Aug 1999
-----------
A small bug corrected in free_string report. They were numbered
starting from zero (which they are internally ;-) but in XXXXX.LEN
they should start from one.

So, just in case ;-) the version number is now displayed in the alert.

New: A file with the same name as the RSC and extention .LEN (length)
---- is generated in case there are field overflows. The format is:

tree  24 ob_no  7 Clpd-> em <-Text: Color system

Clpd is the missing part of the translated text between two spaces. The
whole line follows (<-Text: ) since it helps to quickly find the object
(which some times is hidden ! ).
Now you know exactly where in the RSC to search!

Brief instructions
------------------
Use an OS that keeps the pointer of the loaded RSC in global[7,8], that
means MagiC, MultiTOS, the WDIALOG extention or any newer TOS version
(TOS 2.06 should be OK I think).

Install RSC_TRAN.GTP anywhere on your disk (or floppy ;-)

Drag and drop the resource to be translated on RSC_TRAN's icon. It will
produce a same name .TXT ascii file that will contain the text of all
the objects of the RSC plus alerts and free strings.

This file will NOT contain menu (or other) separators ie these '-------'
lines. This can help to keep the menus length as the original (and maybe
change it later with an RSC editor).
Ruftrade will also shrink such lines to '--', another reason to leave'em
out (apart from the fact that they can't be translated :-) Note though
that editable fields can contain dashes, in this case they're exported
after the text eg "Breite: ___" .

Also object fields containing only numbers are left out. In general if
the field doesn't contain any ascii characters, it will not be exported.

Now translate the .TXT file using Ruftrade, Gemtrade etc (or your perfect
knowledge  of the foreign language eg Hellenic or Chinese !!)

The translated file should have the extention .ENG or .RUF to help
RSC_TRAN recognize it later.

Now drop this file on RSC_TRAN's icon again and it will load and modify
the original RSC file using the translated lines of the ENG/RUF file.
WARNING: Keep a copy of the original RSC! You never know...

Things to note
--------------
Need I say that if the exported TXT and the translated ENG/RUF files do
not have the same number of lines in the same place you'll end up with
a scrabled resource ?
Comments are allowed in the ENG/RUF file, if they start with a '#'.

It's always a good idea to load the modified resource into an RSC editor
for a 'final touch'.

Since RSC_TRAN takes care of text fields length, some translated fields
wider than the original, will be clipped. Now it's time to decide if
you'll enlarge the form or shorten your translation ;-)

If you're using Everest as a text editor or any other editor that has
the option to remove trailing spaces, set this option to 'off'. This
way you'll keep fields enclosed by spaces intact.

Anyone remember XLATOR ? It contains a large dictionary ascii file that
sometimes has more than one explanation for a german word. You can have
it also loaded in your editor and find words that Gemtrade doesn't know
or doesn't give the excact meaning. Use search and paste the word in
your ENG file. This file (GER_ENG.DIC) can also be updated!

It's a good idea to keep the resulted TXT and translated-processed ENG
or RUF files somewhere. This way at the next version of the program you
are now translating, your work will be much much less.

Status and disclaimer
---------------------
RSC_TRAN is FREEWARE and dedicated to Peter West, Derryck Croker, Dennis
Vermeire the TransAction team and any other ATARI user that took the
time and effort to provide us translations of programs and documentation.
Thank you guys !! (but we're expecting more :-)
It can be spread free and included in ftp servers and homepages provided
that no alterations will be made to the code or documentation and that
this readme file is also included.

I'll accept no responsibility if you f*?? up your resources, your disk,
your computer etc by the use or misuse of this program!

You can always contact me in "papval@otenet.gr" for bug reports,
suggestions, ideas etc.

Happy translations,
Vassilis
