Multilang messages not used

[benknoble]

Describe the bug

In terminal vim with +multi_lang and locale as follows, the messages are all in French.

In macvim, however, even when running in the terminal, messages are not localized. They remain in English.

Note that I'm not talking about menus, the translations for which I understand were recently borked. I'm talking about messages, and the interface such as the "quit anyway?" prompt.

# locale
LANG="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="fr_FR.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

To Reproduce

Detailed steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run vim --clean (or gvim --clean, etc.)
2. Type :lang (with a non-English locale) -> Current language: "fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8/C/fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8"
3. Notice not even the :intro screen is translated

Expected behavior

Terminal vim translates all messages and such.

Environment (please complete the following information):

• Vim version

VIM - Vi IMproved 8.1 (2018 May 18, compiled Oct 30 2019 11:57:56)
macOS version
Included patches: 1-2234
Compiled by travis@Traviss-Mac.local
Huge version with MacVim GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
+multi_lang

• OS: macOS 10.14.5
• Terminal: Terminal and GUI

Additional context

This really bugs me because it defeats the muscle memory I have built up to respond to prompts and read messages—I'm used to the French now. I don't want to go back to English messages. I rarely use the :gui part of MacVim, but it's nice for external applications (i.e. away from the terminal). I could always remove it from my shell's PATH but continue to use it as a graphical app, but that too is unsatisfactory.

[eirnym]

@benknoble
This is a known TODO, that MacVim has only English version and was discussed many times. One of the main reasons is translation of the main menu in GUI and :help topics. You can contribute a translation (or more than one) if you need it.

[benknoble]

@eirnym Perhaps I wasn't clear—I'm not referring to help topics or to the menus.

I'm talking about messages. The little things that popup and say, do you want to quit? Hit enter to continue... Swap file detected, press a button:

Or this copy-paste of my (normal vim) translated intro

  VIM - Vi Amélioré
                         version 8.1.2250
                     par Bram Moolenaar et al.
                     Vim est un logiciel libre

               Sponsorisez le développement de Vim !
tapez  :help sponsor<Entrée>    pour plus d'informations

tapez  :q<Entrée>               pour sortir du programme
tapez  :help<Entrée>  ou  <F1>  pour accéder à l'aide en ligne
tapez  :help version8<Entrée>   pour lire les notes de mise à jour

vs. macvim (even in terminal):

               VIM - Vi IMproved

               version 8.1.2234
           by Bram Moolenaar et al.
  Vim is open source and freely distributable

         Become a registered Vim user!
type  :help register<Enter>   for information

type  :q<Enter>               to exit
type  :help<Enter>  or  <F1>  for on-line help
type  :help macvim<Enter>     for MacVim help

As far as I can tell, terminal vim ships with the messages translations. I don't care about the menus and the help topics (the french ones are so out of date as to be practically useless, and I don't have the time to work on them). These messages are, however, muscle memory (the prompts use keys that depend on the first letter of the action to take, which obviously differ w.r.t. language).

[benknoble]

I believe all you need is this from vim/vim: https://github.com/vim/vim/tree/26967617a30e55aedc98b8f14b841d88469abd0e/src/po

[eirnym]

I agree with you. Because of the reasons I've mentioned, all other translations are disabled in this repo.

[eirnym]

#776 is basically the same issue on that topic

[benknoble]

all other translations

This is not the same as "no menu translations," which I see in :h macvim-todo:

- Localized menus are not supported.  Choosing anything but "English" in the
  "International" pane of "System Prefences" may break the menus (and
  toolbar).

I would have expected translating internal messages to be completely achievable (since it is a simple string mapping at runtime), irrespective of the gui menu issues (which has to do with Apple's system). I understand (I think) why we have :set langmenu=none—but that doesn't explain why, if :lang mess gives the right locale, those messages aren't actually used.

[eirnym]

Menu translations should be done on a different level than translation for the rest of the ViM Core. Vim Core has it's translations in editable files, while translations of a MacOS app is done in other ways. So yes, this confirms, that the menu translations are missing.

Currently, most of menu done in menu.vim files, so it will be easier, but the main menu (MacVim) and the preference pane has been done as any other MacOS app. You need to add whole set off translations there.

So I invite you to contribute translations for many languages for parts which are missing in Vim Core or have to be done in the other way than has been in Vim Core.

[eirnym]

Let me find for you some of the places required for translations

[eirnym]

In the project there's Xcode string catalogs named src/MacVim/English.lproj for English, and it's needed to translate at the beginning.

After this, we need to translate menu.vim generated for English users. We shouldn't forget to make sure that Sparkle framework has translations wee need.

Also you need to know about differences with input, and edit commands accordingly. I use keyboard Polish for programmers, so I have both Polish and all keys placed like in English keyboard.

After these two parts has been done, help documentation should be also translated.

[benknoble]

I'm going to repeat what I started with: I don't have any interest in menu or help translations for MacVim at this time.

What I care about is the messages translation. They are all already translated in vim "core." I do not see why they cannot be used as is for MacVim's text-based message.

[eirnym]

I agree with you. The language selection in MacOS applications is done in a different way than in terminal and for other systems. To make it consistent other translations has been disabled.

If you insist, I can give you the exact answer what is the problem with enabling localisation.

[ychin]

Let me take a look.

[yanncoupin]

I hoped that this would also fix issue #11 that 5 years later is still an ongoing problem and is eerily similar, but alas, no. Could the acquired knowledge fixing this also help to fix the other issue?

[benknoble]

@yanncoupin Yeah, I think these are a bit different. Here, I'm talking very specifically about translation of messages/error codes/etc., which was already done in vim core--there has been some confusion on this issue, so let me re-emphasize it is not about the menus, which I understand won't be translated anytime soon.

Your issue is interesting though--seems like vim relies on some functions that depend on locale under the hood, and maybe doesn't appropriately force the locale for its parsing?

At any rate, when I launch vim (terminal, macvim from GUI, or macvim from terminal), I have locale set to French/UTF-8; that is, the environment variables are set in my terminal in addition to the language in Preferences.

The issue I have here is it seems like it would be easy to use the same translation mechanism as vim core for the messaging text (not the menu text) for display to a user in an error or on :intro or something.

[eirnym]

After the latest locale changes, MacVim correctly sets locale. The locale change was disabled back in a day because of absence of macOS app menu, Vim menu and Vim help translations.

Doing Vim menu translation is very simple as menu is quite similar to GVim and we can borrow it from there. My opinion is macOS app menu and changes in help could be in English for a while and translation help is requested.

@ychin What do you think on this matter?