Just wondering if support for foreign languages might eventually be implemented?
I would think that with multi-player support, the next step might be multi-language support. I'm not a programmer, not even close, but I've looked briefly at how the (open source) Pingus game handles multiple languages, and i think it might work for Overgrowth.
..as i understand, it uses a script file that ends in .po, and uses ISO fonts, so it can support languages with scripts and letters that are not found in the Latin alphabet like english. The scripts seem to show the words/senteces in english, and then the translated words/sentences underneath.
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1\n"
#: src/pingu_enums.cpp:54
msgid "Teleported"
msgstr "Teletransportado"
...also i think the way Pingus makes use worldmaps is pretty cool too. It makes it easy to "switch islands" on campaign completion, since the same island over and over might eventually get boring. But that's another topic altogether..
multiple language support?
Re: multiple language support?
I can't say anything for sure, but it seems like multiple languages might not be too far off, given the fact that we have an Overt Ops forum for spreading the word about overgrowth to non-english speaking people.
If there is any voice acting in Overgrowth it could get difficult, but if it stays text only like in Lugaru I bet it would be really easy to have multiple language support.
This just made me wonder: in computer programming people use words like "if" and "then" and "and" and "while", I wonder if those words are used in all languages to code?
If there is any voice acting in Overgrowth it could get difficult, but if it stays text only like in Lugaru I bet it would be really easy to have multiple language support.
This just made me wonder: in computer programming people use words like "if" and "then" and "and" and "while", I wonder if those words are used in all languages to code?
Re: multiple language support?
Cool. Yeah, i was talking about text only.Sumguy720 wrote:I can't say anything for sure, but it seems like multiple languages might not be too far off, given the fact that we have an Overt Ops forum for spreading the word about overgrowth to non-english speaking people.
If there is any voice acting in Overgrowth it could get difficult, but if it stays text only like in Lugaru I bet it would be really easy to have multiple language support.
This just made me wonder: in computer programming people use words like "if" and "then" and "and" and "while", I wonder if those words are used in all languages to code?
...And while I'm not a programmer, yeah i think they do use the "If" and "then" in their code even though the words themselves are English. Seems odd though.
Re: multiple language support?
what's wrong with engrish?
Re: multiple language support?
I haven't followed the alpha developement for some time, but I don't think the dialogue system is definite yet. That said, my guess would be that the data will be present as some form of XML, so there should be no problem of introducing language packs as mods.
As for the question if and why English words are prevalent in programming languages, it is mostly convention I guess. English is just the dominant language in the western world. In the beginning there also were programming languages which key words were in French or German( or other languages). There still are dialects of popular programming languages whose compilers understand keywords in other languages than English, I guess, but they are mostly for educational purposes(and that in itself is questionable). After all programming languages are just formal languages with clearly defined semantics and keywords are just that, keywords. For the compiler, the program, that translates programing languages into machine languages, it doesn't matter if the keyword is written 'if', 'when' or 'donut' or 'dog' or ... as long as the semantics he finds in the look-up-table stay the same. So from that stand point it would be (almost s.b.) no problem to use French, German or any other kind of language for the key words.
But other humans have to read source code, too and that's where standardization and dominant languages come into play. In an international programming project it just wouldn't make sense to write different parts of the program in different dialects of the same language because your coworker who has to do maintenance next week wouldn't understand what you write. Needless to say most popular programming languages (C for example) where created in English speaking countries.
Another benefit of English is that the alphabet is simple, there are just no special characters( umlaut like 'ä','ö' in German, accents in French 'é','â' etc.) which could lead to further problems.
As for the question if and why English words are prevalent in programming languages, it is mostly convention I guess. English is just the dominant language in the western world. In the beginning there also were programming languages which key words were in French or German( or other languages). There still are dialects of popular programming languages whose compilers understand keywords in other languages than English, I guess, but they are mostly for educational purposes(and that in itself is questionable). After all programming languages are just formal languages with clearly defined semantics and keywords are just that, keywords. For the compiler, the program, that translates programing languages into machine languages, it doesn't matter if the keyword is written 'if', 'when' or 'donut' or 'dog' or ... as long as the semantics he finds in the look-up-table stay the same. So from that stand point it would be (almost s.b.) no problem to use French, German or any other kind of language for the key words.
But other humans have to read source code, too and that's where standardization and dominant languages come into play. In an international programming project it just wouldn't make sense to write different parts of the program in different dialects of the same language because your coworker who has to do maintenance next week wouldn't understand what you write. Needless to say most popular programming languages (C for example) where created in English speaking countries.
Another benefit of English is that the alphabet is simple, there are just no special characters( umlaut like 'ä','ö' in German, accents in French 'é','â' etc.) which could lead to further problems.