Russian localization

CityAceE

Here is the Russian localization of BASIC Engine.

rus.zip

57kB

The integration field will require additional translation of a few lines that mention a list of languages.

I translated it and double-checked every phrase several times. Of course, I actively used neural networks in this work, but still every phrase passed my check. In addition, I checked all the text in context with each other directly on the device.

Despite this, minor errors may still occur in the text.

In the process of testing, I identified some serious problems in the text viewer. It turned out that it does not work well with characters that are not part of the ASCII set. But I can't get these bugs on GitHub, as Russian localization is not yet integrated into the system. @uli I'll ask you to take a look for yourself and fix the bugs that are clearly glaring.

I would be grateful for help in additional translation verification for Russian-speaking BASIC Engine users.

CityAceE

CityAceE In the process of testing, I identified some serious problems in the text viewer.

I think this is due to the fact that in the Russian text there are Cyrillic characters, which are encoded in two bytes, and Latin characters and numbers, which are encoded in one byte. And the viewer does not always correctly take into account the length of the string in bytes.

uli

I picked up the localization, should show up in the next build. Thanks.

CityAceE I'll ask you to take a look for yourself and fix the bugs that are clearly glaring.

Sorry, but I don't see anything that is obviously wrong. I guess you will have to be more specific.

CityAceE

And thank you again!

Now the BASIC Engine speaks the same language as me. And everything looks great. Except for some re-translated phrases that appeared after my translation. I'm going to write a script for myself to keep track of all the new phrases and generate a new PO file with all the new lines and no obsolete ones.

The only thing missing now is the ability to type in Cyrillic. Is there any possibility to add a Russian layout to the keyboard in addition to the existing ones?

uli Sorry, but I don't see anything that is obviously wrong. I guess you will have to be more specific.

Everything looks like you have already fixed all the problems in the context of other errors. Now the text is output without obvious errors.

uli

CityAceE The only thing missing now is the ability to type in Cyrillic. Is there any possibility to add a Russian layout to the keyboard in addition to the existing ones?

Glad you asked. 😄 That feature has been in Engine BASIC since all of last Thursday. You can put a UTF-8 text file in /sys/kbd (say, /sys/kbd/Russian.txt) that contains lines of this format:

<SDL scancode> <unshifted character> <shifted character> <AltGr character> <shifted AltGr character>

The keyboard layout will be initialized with the US keys, so you only have to specify the keys that differ. Scancodes have to be specified as decimal or hexadecimal numbers. (SDL scancodes are AFAICT identical to USB scancodes.)

I have added an Italian layout as a PoC, because that required few changes:

# Italian keyboard layout

0x35 = \ |
0x1f = 2 "
0x20 = 3 £
0x22 = 5 % €
0x23 = 6 &
0x24 = 7 /
0x25 = 8 (
0x26 = 9 )
0x27 = 0 =
0x2d = ' ? `
0x2e = ì ^ ~

0x08 = e E €
0x2f = è é [ {
0x30 = + * ] }

0x33 = ò ç @
0x34 = à ° #
0x32 = ù §

0x64 = < >
0x36 = , ;
0x37 = . :
0x38 = - _

You can switch between keyboard layouts using [AltGr] + [RCtrl] + [<n>] (n being a number), and you can toggle a keyboard layout hint with [F1].

CityAceE

It's done!

russian.zip

461B

But there are problems with two characters.

<2> + <SHIFT> must type "№". But the help displays “2”, but actually prints a space.
<Q> and <Q> + <SHIFT> must type "й" and "Й" accordingly, but help and typing display only "й". I'm assuming it's a font issue.

uli

CityAceE <2> + <SHIFT> must type "№". But the help displays “2”, but actually prints a space.

That seems to happen when the font doesn't contain the character. I had the same issue when trying to make a PETSCII layout. Gotta look into that. (Please open a bug report so I won't forget.)

Dmian

If any of the fonts needs improving, just let me know. Alternatively, an issue can be opened in the repos:
https://github.com/damianvila/font-lexis

https://github.com/damianvila/font-bescii
(BESCII doesn't have Cyrillic. I'm planning to add it soon).

CityAceE

Dmian If any of the fonts needs improving, just let me know.

Thank you!

Right now, I see three problems with the Liexis font:

the letters “Й” and “й” have the same lettering and are visually indistinguishable. Examples: “ТРОЙКА, тройка, Йогурт, йогурт, Йод, йод”
there is no “No” character, which in the Russian layout is typed using SHIFT + 3. Example: “Пункт №1”.
The letters “Ё” and “ё” are different in appearance, but both have the same height and look about the same. Example: "МОЛОДЁЖЬ, молодёжь, Ёлка, ёлка, Ёж, ёж".

I suggest as a reference point the 6*8 font from the popular Soviet computer Mikrosha (Микроша).

Dmian BESCII doesn't have Cyrillic. I'm planning to add it soon

I'll look forward to it as it's kind of the most popular retro fonts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_866

Dmian

CityAceE Oh! Ok. Thanks a lot for the reference. They're very handy. I'll try to improve the fonts as soon as possible.

Yes, with uppercase letter with diacritics (like Á, Ó, Ñ, etc.) it's very difficult to fit them in the 6x8 or 8x8 space. In the latin alphabet, since there's distinction between uppercase a lowercase (N and n, A and a, etc) I can do with making a smaller uppercase, and inserting the diacritic on top. But Cyrillic lowercase glyphs are basically the same as the uppercase ones (but shorter), so this solution clearly lends itself to confusion.

That's why having a local reference it's extremely important, since I can see how native readers solved the problem, and that guides me in creating a better version. Again, thanks for the references as these are extremely helpful. ☺️

Dmian

@CityAceE I'm now working on the glyphs for Bescii. Here's a little preview. I wanted to check with you to see if I'm on the right path. If you see something that looks weird or needs to be changed, let me know.

I used a couple sources as inspiration, so I'm not creating anything new, but even native speakers sometimes don't solve the problems presented with quite the same skill.

It may still take a bit, because I'm re-creating the font in a different (cheaper) version of the program I used that can't open the original files, and then I need to convert to TrueType, since this version doesn't export in that format, and check that everything works as expected. At the same type, I'm expanding the font with Greek, and reviewing a few characters I didn't like much (I will probably change the game glyphs quite a bit). I'm also adding something Ulrich asked me too, that was missing (the white bullet). 😄

So, this will most probably be version 2 of the font. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

CityAceE

Dmian I'm now working on the glyphs for Bescii. Here's a little preview. I wanted to check with you to see if I'm on the right path. If you see something that looks weird or needs to be changed, let me know.

Thank you! Everything looks familiar and readable to me. I don't see anything I'd like to fix.

Dmian

Please, try the beta of v2.0 of Bescii and tell me if you see anything wrong with it:

https://github.com/damianvila/font-bescii/releases/tag/v2.0-beta

I had to re-create the whole font, so I took the opportunity to fix a few things and add the requested features. But I used a different workflow, so I hope nothing's messed. I kindly appreciate if you can help me by checking that everything is ok.
Thank you!

uli

As a reminder (Have I actually mentioned that anywhere?): You can use LOAD FONT <filename$> to load TTF fonts and select them with FONT <name$> SIZE <x>, <y>. (The name is the file's base name without extension.)

Dmian

uli Oh! Right. Yes, yes you did. And I totally forgot… 😝.
I’m going to check it, and if everything goes ok, I’ll make the official release. (I already modified a few things I discovered).
Next weekend I’ll do Lexis. Cheers!

Dmian

Everything seems to be in order. We go with the release. 😊

Dmian

Tested with the desktop version, works well there too:

Btw: @uli While trying to generate this second image, I configured the system with the Spanish keyboard layout, but seems to be mapped wrong?
I checked TKeyboard.cpp (and the sdl one) and think some of the mappings are wrong. But I see some U and backslashes around that I have no idea what they do, and I'm afraid to break anything if I modify it. How can I help you correct it? So far I've identified 4 wrong keys.

uli

I picked up the new font and the keyboard layout, but they might only show up in tomorrow's build.

Dmian Btw: @uli While trying to generate this second image, I configured the system with the Spanish keyboard layout, but seems to be mapped wrong?
I checked TKeyboard.cpp (and the sdl one) and think some of the mappings are wrong. But I see some U and backslashes around that I have no idea what they do, and I'm afraid to break anything if I modify it. How can I help you correct it? So far I've identified 4 wrong keys.

Since the Spanish layout happens to be the last of the built-in layouts, we could simply drop it and add a keyboard layout file like the Russian one instead...

CityAceE

Here's what I got. I think it looks good. I still don't really like the way the capital letters "Ё" and "Й" look, but I realize it's almost impossible to do anything with them given the limited height. But those are letters that are pretty rarely used as capitals, so I think it's okay to ignore them.

Thanks again for your work!

@uli Please add Russian keyboard layout to next release.

Dmian

CityAceE I still don't really like the way the capital letters "Ё" and "Й" look, but I realize it's almost impossible to do anything with them given the limited height.

Exactly. There’s not much you can do with a 8x8 grid. I tried my best.

Dmian

uli Ok, perfect. I'll check the repo and look at the Russian file to see if I can make a similar Spanish file. I'll let you know. Thanks!