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Procedure documentationTranslate POS Application Texts

Procedure

This procedure describes how to translate texts displayed by the POS application.

  • Name: LITDEF.TXT

  • Format: Text file

  • Tools: Plain text editor supporting foreign characters; MKLIT.EXE; LITDEF.H

To translate the POS application texts into another language:

  1. Open the LITDEF.TXT file in the text editor and translate any text within double quotes. For example: "%d TERMINALS ALREADY OPEN." Do not modify any text outside the quotation marks.

    Pay special attention to the lines with text such as: .LITLEN 40. The number '40' indicates the number of bytes allowed for the translation.

  2. When translating into a European language, you can enter up to 40 characters for the translation. However if you are translating into an Asian language that uses double-byte characters (DBCS) you can only use half of the bytes specified. For example, at a line specified with .LITLEN 40, you can only use a maximum of 20 DBCS characters because each character requires 2 bytes. If you exceed the specified number of bytes, the system generates an error when it converts this file.

Caution Caution

Do not alter any symbols that follow the % sign, such as %-12s or %d. These symbols are placeholders for information captured while the program is running. If there is more than one symbol per line, such as CANNOT %s FOR PUMP#%02d, %s, do not change the order in which the symbols appear in the line.

When you find a ‘~’ symbol at the start of a line, this means that the line contains a variable code. This is identified by another ‘~’ symbol surrounding a code string. Do not remove or translate the code string. This contains instructions for the application to insert information from a transaction. For example, in the following text ~~PTDS~ REC EXISTS, you would not translate ‘PTDS’ but you should translate ‘REC EXISTS’.

End of the caution.

Following the translation process:

  1. In a DOS session, run the following: mklit litdef.txt litdef.h literal.lit

    If there are no errors, the newly generated literal.lit file contains the translated text and can replace the existing file in the product.

    If errors appear, it is likely the number of characters allowed for a given literal has been exceeded and the translation needs to be shortened. The error identifies the problem literal.

  2. Restart the server and the POS application to apply the new literal file.