NetHack in other languages - Revision history

Umbire the Phantom: snip

2026-05-20T22:32:49Z

snip

Umbire the Phantom: lede, spacing

2026-05-12T14:39:32Z

lede, spacing

Netzhack: /* Character sets */ Rewriting hopes for UTF-8

2026-05-12T09:37:30Z

‎Character sets: Rewriting hopes for UTF-8

Netzhack: /* The problem */ Clearer wording

2025-11-23T16:32:40Z

‎The problem: Clearer wording

Netzhack: /* The problem */ let's not overdo it

2024-08-28T12:12:43Z

‎The problem: let's not overdo it

Netzhack: /* The problem */ more explanatory

2024-08-28T12:11:45Z

‎The problem: more explanatory

Netzhack: /* Monster and object names */ Different approach = separate paragraph

2024-06-21T11:41:46Z

‎Monster and object names: Different approach = separate paragraph

Netzhack: /* NetzHack */ Tried to mark instances of {{function...}} to prevent inappropriate version shifts, but the {{...|version=...}} parameter doesn't work. Also the 'x' argument isn't documented.

2024-06-20T11:01:41Z

‎NetzHack: Tried to mark instances of {{function...}} to prevent inappropriate version shifts, but the {{...|version=...}} parameter doesn't work. Also the 'x' argument isn't documented.

Netzhack: /* Current NetHack localization strategies */ Warning about source refs

2024-06-20T10:44:21Z

‎Current NetHack localization strategies: Warning about source refs

Furey: Roll back 7 edits, to the version with summary "Internationalization: Update NetHack-i18n". Edits after that were updating source references to 3.6.7. Per discussion with Netzhack on my talk page, that was the wrong direction. Apologies.

2024-06-15T08:36:51Z

Roll back 7 edits, to the version with summary "Internationalization: Update NetHack-i18n". Edits after that were updating source references to 3.6.7. Per discussion with Netzhack on my talk page, that was the wrong direction. Apologies.

Show changes

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{RogueBasin|Translation}}
-[[NetHack]]'s text output is in English. Although the program's structure does not easily lend itself to [[Wikipedia:Internationalization and localization|localization]] because English [[wikipedia:Morphology_(linguistics)|morphology]] and [[wikipedia:Syntax|syntax]] are hard-wired into the [[source code]] on all levels, several localization projects for other languages currently exist.
+[[NetHack]]'s text output is in English. Although the program's structure does not easily lend itself to [[Wikipedia:Internationalization and localization|localization]] because English [[wikipedia:Morphology_(linguistics)|morphology]] and [[wikipedia:Syntax|syntax]] are hard-wired into the [[source code]] on all levels, several localization projects currently exist.
 ==German==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{RogueBasin|Translation}}
-[[NetHack]]'s text output is in English. Although the program's structure does not easily lend itself to [[Wikipedia:Internationalization and localization|localization]] because English [[wikipedia:Morphology_(linguistics)|morphology]] and [[wikipedia:Syntax|syntax]] are hard-wired into the [[source code]] on all levels, several localization projects currently exist.
+[[NetHack]]'s text output is in English. Although the program's structure does not easily lend itself to [[Wikipedia:Internationalization and localization|localization]] because English [[wikipedia:Morphology_(linguistics)|morphology]] and [[wikipedia:Syntax|syntax]] are hard-wired into the [[source code]] on all levels, several localization projects for other languages currently exist.
 [[User:Netzhack|Tony Crawford]] and Karl Breuer have completed a German-localized version called [http://www.netzhack.de/ NetzHack] (note the 'z'), which runs on GNU/Linux, *BSD, and OS X (console and X11), and on Win32 (console and Windows graphics). Early versions up to NetzHack v1, released in 2017, were based on NetHack 3.4.3; NetzHack v2.0, released in December 2021, is based on NetHack 3.6. Source and binaries available [http://www.netzhack.de/download/ here].
 A different German translation attempt by [[User:Bhaak|Patric Mueller]] called [http://nethack-de.sourceforge.net/ NetHack-De] was released as a playable, although incomplete, alpha release on 11 October 2007. The [https://sourceforge.net/projects/nethack-de/files/nethack-de/3.4.3-20120127a/ latest release] (2012) includes source code, a [[Debian]] package and a graphical Windows binary.
-== Japanese ==
+==Japanese==
 [https://web.archive.org/web/20221220005450/http://nethack-users.sourceforge.jp/ JNetHack] by Issei Numata has been in existence for several years.  The older version (based on ''NetHack ''3.2.2) by Issei Numata is [http://www.jnethack.org/ here]. In addition, beta versions of [https://web.archive.org/web/20200222122336/http://jslashem.osdn.jp/ ''JSLASH'EM''] is also available now.
@@ Line 16: / Line 14: @@
 [[NetHack brass]] can be compiled as an English or Japanese version.
-== Spanish ==
+==Spanish==
 Ray Chason has published [https://sourceforge.net/projects/nethack-i18n/ Internationalized NetHack] as a work in progress.  It presently supports English and Spanish, and will eventually supersede [https://spanish-nethack.sourceforge.net/ Spanish NetHack].
@@ Line 33: / Line 30: @@
 Simplified Chinese-language articles can also be accessed on [[NetHackWiki]] via the /zh-CN subpages.
-== Incomplete or stalled translations ==
+==Incomplete or stalled translations==
 A SourceForge project for a French translation called [https://sourceforge.net/projects/nethack-fr/ nethack-fr] was registered on August 6th 2009. The last update was on August 15 2014.
@@ Line 202: / Line 199: @@
 UTF-8, the ISO-8859-x encodings, and Shift-JIS are all supersets of the 7-bit ASCII used by original NetHack, but they are all mutually exclusive. Only UTF-8 is designed to encode the full Unicode character set, grouping the writing systems of all languages in one scheme. Hence a fundamental port to UTF-8 encoding might facilitate other translation projects.
-[[Category: Variants]]
+[[Category:Variants]]

@@ Line 183: / Line 183: @@
 ===Character sets===
-[[ASCII]] is inadequate for most languages other than English.  All translations use a larger character set for messages.  Case mappings and fuzzy matches for wishes and other inputs must take the character set into account; if the Spanish-language user wishes for "cota de escamas de dragon gris", he should get a [[gray dragon scale mail]], even though the correct spelling is "dragón".
+Original NetHack is entirely in [[ASCII]], which is inadequate for most languages other than English.  All translations use a larger character set for messages.  Case mappings and fuzzy matches for wishes and other inputs must take the character set into account; if the Spanish-language user wishes for "cota de escamas de dragon gris", he should get a [[gray dragon scale mail]], even though the correct spelling is "dragón".
 '''JNetHack''' uses [[wikipedia:EUC-JP|EUC-JP]], with tests in the code to detect if the source has been converted to [[wikipedia:Shift-JIS|Shift-JIS]]; EUC-JP is adapted for [[Unix]]-like environments, and Shift-JIS for [[Microsoft Windows]].
@@ Line 198: / Line 198: @@
 '''NetzHack''' is also in ISO-8859-x. The MS Windows console version actually uses two charsets (or "code pages" in Microspeak): the dungeon map is drawn in the system's default code page, while the Windows 1252 code page, containing the German characters ÄÖÜäöüß, is used for text messages.
-In recent updates of Windows 10, Microsoft has finally begun to offer some support for UTF-8 output, which has been standard for some time now in the Unix world. Future versions of NetHack in other languages can therefore be expected to use UTF-8 encoding.
+In recent updates of Windows 10, Microsoft has finally begun to offer some support for UTF-8 output, which has been standard for some time now in the Unix world. Hence there is hope that future versions of NetHack in other languages may use UTF-8 encoding.
-UTF-8, the ISO-8859-x encodings, and Shift-JIS are all supersets of the 7-bit ASCII used by original NetHack, but they are all mutually exclusive. Only UTF-8 is designed to encode the writing systems of all languages in one scheme. Hence a fundamental port to UTF-8 encoding might facilitate other translation projects.
+UTF-8, the ISO-8859-x encodings, and Shift-JIS are all supersets of the 7-bit ASCII used by original NetHack, but they are all mutually exclusive. Only UTF-8 is designed to encode the full Unicode character set, grouping the writing systems of all languages in one scheme. Hence a fundamental port to UTF-8 encoding might facilitate other translation projects.
 [[Category: Variants]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:32, 23 November 2025
Line 56:		Line 56:


−	Because NetHack has output text in the form of string literals scattered throughout the code, the ~~customary~~ approach is for the translator to go through the source code and substitute translations for the string literals. What complicates this process is the fact that many messages are composed of elements that can vary with the ~~runtime~~ context. For example, an output statement like "the dagger hits your little dog" would be generated by a line of code more or less like this:	+	Because NetHack has output text in the form of string literals scattered throughout the code, the obvious approach is for the translator to go through the source code and substitute translations for the string literals. What complicates this process is the fact that many messages are composed at runtime of elements that can vary with the game context. For example, an output statement like "the dagger hits your little dog" would be generated by a line of code more or less like this:

	pline("%s hits %s.", objectname, monstername);		pline("%s hits %s.", objectname, monstername);

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:12, 28 August 2024
Line 56:		Line 56:


−	Because NetHack has output text in the form of string literals scattered throughout the code, the customary approach is for the translator to go through the source code and substitute translations for the string literals. What complicates this process is the fact that many messages are composed of elements that can vary with the runtime context. For example, an output statement like "the ~~elvish~~ dagger hits your little dog" would be generated by a line of code more or less like this:	+	Because NetHack has output text in the form of string literals scattered throughout the code, the customary approach is for the translator to go through the source code and substitute translations for the string literals. What complicates this process is the fact that many messages are composed of elements that can vary with the runtime context. For example, an output statement like "the dagger hits your little dog" would be generated by a line of code more or less like this:

	pline("%s hits %s.", objectname, monstername);		pline("%s hits %s.", objectname, monstername);

@@ Line 56: / Line 56: @@
-Because NetHack has output text in the form of string literals scattered throughout the code, the customary approach is for the translator to go through the source code and substitute translations for the string literals. What complicates this process is the fact that many messages are composed of elements that can vary with the runtime context. For example, in an output statement like this:
+Because NetHack has output text in the form of string literals scattered throughout the code, the customary approach is for the translator to go through the source code and substitute translations for the string literals. What complicates this process is the fact that many messages are composed of elements that can vary with the runtime context. For example, an output statement like "the elvish dagger hits your little dog" would be generated by a line of code more or less like this:
   pline("%s hits %s.", objectname, monstername);
-the variables "objectname" and "monstername" may be singular or plural, masculine or feminine, and may be introduced by "a" or "the". The words to be inserted must be formed appropriately before the output function call.
+where the variables "objectname" and "monstername" may be singular or plural, masculine or feminine, and may be introduced by "a" or "the", or sometimes "your". The words to be inserted must be formed appropriately before the output function call.
 At various points in the program, NetHack's output messages vary with second and third person verb forms, singular and plural verb forms, and noun inflections by case, gender, and number.

@@ Line 172: / Line 172: @@
 NetzHack, on the other hand, adds an element to the object and monster data types, struct obj and struct mon, so that each kind of monster and object has both its translated German name and, invisibly to the user, its original English name too. Thus pm.h and onames.h are generated using the original names as before.
-NetHack-i18n, because it has Gettext available, leaves the monster and object tables in English and converts them at run time.  Another approach might be to bite the bullet and replace the preprocessor symbols in pm.h and onames.h with their translated versions.  No known translation takes this approach.
+NetHack-i18n, because it has Gettext available, leaves the monster and object tables in English and converts them at run time.
 ===Input parsing===

@@ Line 141: / Line 141: @@
 * Create a new data type, usage_t, to contain the usage information of a context in which a noun, adjective or pronoun appears: number (singular or plural), case (nominative, genitive, dative or accusative), gender (masculine, feminine or neuter), and determiner (the, a/an, this, your, or none).
 * Write a new module, german.c, with the functions necessary to inflect German nouns and adjectives for a specified usage, and add a dictionary, nouns_de.h, which associates each German noun in the game with a reference to its declension paradigm.
-* Replace functions that produce an object or monster name, such as {{function|objnam.c|doname|x}} or {{function|do_name.c|mon_nam|x}}, with expanded versions that take a usage_t argument and inflect the output noun phrase for the usage indicated.
+* Replace functions that produce an object or monster name, such as {{function|objnam.c|doname|version=3.4.3}} or {{function|do_name.c|mon_nam|version=3.4.3}}, with expanded versions that take a usage_t argument and inflect the output noun phrase for the usage indicated.
-* Write human-readable macros in a new header, german.h, to call those functions with specific values of the usage parameters, then use these macros as drop-in replacements for the original functions to provide German grammar throughout the code. For example, the output statement in [[mthrowu.c#line227]],
+* Write human-readable macros in a new header, german.h, to call those functions with specific values of the usage parameters, then use these macros as drop-in replacements for the original functions to provide German grammar throughout the code. For example, the output statement in [[Source:NetHack 3.4.3/src/mthrowu.c#line227|line 227 of mthrowu.c]],
   pline("%s is blinded by %s.", Monnam(mtmp), the(xname(otmp)));
@@ Line 150: / Line 150: @@
   pline("%s wird von %s geblendet.", Monnam_nomsing(mtmp), the_xname_dat(otmp));
-Monnam_nomsing and the_xname_dat are macros that call German grammar-sensitive versions of {{function|do_name.c|mon_nam|x}} and {{function|objnam.c|xname|x}}, passing them the appropriate usage parameters for this message. The macro definitions (in german.h) look like this:
+Monnam_nomsing and the_xname_dat are macros that call German grammar-sensitive versions of {{function|do_name.c|mon_nam|version=3.6.1}} and {{function|objnam.c|xname|version=3.6.1}}, passing them the appropriate usage parameters for this message. The macro definitions (in german.h) look like this:
   #define Monnam_nomsing(m) Monnamg((m), (usage_t){SINGULAR, GENDER_UNKNOWN, CASE_NOMINATIVE, ARTICLE_DEFINITE})

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:44, 20 June 2024
Line 49:		Line 49:

	===The problem===		===The problem===
		+
		+	<!-- Dear editors: from here down, be wary of updating source code refs!
		+	The various localized versions are based on specific original NetHack
		+	versions, and shifting the source refs to other versions may result in
		+	mis-, dis-, or dysinformation! -->
		+

	Because NetHack has output text in the form of string literals scattered throughout the code, the customary approach is for the translator to go through the source code and substitute translations for the string literals. What complicates this process is the fact that many messages are composed of elements that can vary with the runtime context. For example, in an output statement like this:		Because NetHack has output text in the form of string literals scattered throughout the code, the customary approach is for the translator to go through the source code and substitute translations for the string literals. What complicates this process is the fact that many messages are composed of elements that can vary with the runtime context. For example, in an output statement like this: