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<title>Teach Your Eclipse to Speak the Local Lingo</title>
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<div align="right"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="2">Copyright &copy; 2006 International Business
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<td align="left" valign="top" colspan="2" bgcolor="#0080C0"><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#FFFFFF">Eclipse
Corner Article</font></font></b></td>
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<h1><img src="images/Idea.jpg" height="86" width="120" alt=""></h1>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h1 align="center">Teach Your Eclipse to Speak the Local Lingo</h1>
<blockquote><b>Summary</b><br>
Translations for the Eclipse Project and several top-level projects are contributed to the Eclipse Foundation in every
major release of Eclipse. However, there is no official information on what translations are available, where to get
them, how to install them, and how to use them. This article provides step-by-step instructions describing what is
available, where to download them, how to install them, and how to launch Eclipse in different languages. Examples on
launching Eclipse in different languages, including single byte language like Russian, double byte language like
Traditional Chinese, and bi-directional language like Arabic, on different operating systems like RHEL WS 4, Windows XP,
and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, together with useful hints and tips, will give you a good general idea on how to launch
Eclipse in any of the translated languages, even if the environment you want to work on is not explicitly discussed.
<p><b>By Kit Lo, IBM</b><br>
<font size="-1">February 24, 2006</font></p>
</blockquote>
<hr width="100%">
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>Translations for the Eclipse Project and several top-level projects are contributed to the Eclipse Foundation in
every major release of Eclipse. However, there is no official information on what translations are available, where to
get them, how to install them, and how to use them. This article provides step-by-step instructions describing what is
available, where to download them, how to install them, and how to launch Eclipse in different languages.</p>
<h2>What are available</h2>
<p>The latest language packs for Eclipse 3.1 are available at <a
href="http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/L-3.1.1_Language_Packs-200510051300/index.php">http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/L-3.1.1_Language_Packs-200510051300/index.php</a>.
See the Eclipse News announcement at <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/org/press-release/20051012nlscb.html">http://www.eclipse.org/org/press-release/20051012nlscb.html</a>.
These translations are based on the Eclipse 3.1.1 build, but should work with all subsequent maintenance releases of
Eclipse 3.1. Technically, no new strings should be added to a maintenance release, except for critical bug fixes. If new
strings are added to a maintenance release of Eclipse 3.1, they will not show up as translated when you install these
language packs.</p>
<h2>Different Types of Language Pack</h2>
<p>The following is a list of different types of language pack available for Eclipse 3.1:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>NLpack1</b>&nbsp;– Contains the national language (NL) features and NL fragments for the features and plug-ins
defined in the Eclipse Project, in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese,
Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese</li>
<li><b>NLpack2</b>&nbsp;– Contains the NL features and NL fragments for the features and plug-ins defined in the
Eclipse Project, in Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Russian</li>
<li><b>NLpackBidi</b>&nbsp;– Contains the NL features and NL fragments for the features and plug-ins defined in the
Eclipse Project, in Arabic</li>
<li><b>NLpack1_FeatureOverlay</b>&nbsp;– Contains the translations of the feature.properties files for the features
defined in the Eclipse Project, in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese,
Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese</li>
<li><b>NLpack2_FeatureOverlay</b>&nbsp;– Contains the translations of the feature.properties files for the features
defined in the Eclipse Project, in Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Russian</li>
<li><b>NLpackBidi_FeatureOverlay</b>&nbsp;– Contains the translations of the feature.properties files for the features
defined in the Eclipse Project, in Arabic</li>
</ul>
<p>The following figure shows what files are included in the different types of language pack for Eclipse 3.1.</p>
<img src="images/figure001.png" alt="Figure 1 - files included in different types of language pack">
<p>Figure 1 - files included in different types of language pack</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> Files that cannot use the Java resource bundles naming convention (for example, HTML and XML files) are
placed in locale-specific subdirectories under the plug-in.</p>
<h2>Installing Eclipse</h2>
<p>Before installing the language packs, we assume you have installed one of the Eclipse downloads. The latest Eclipse
3.1.2 downloads are available at <a href="http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/R-3.1.2-200601181600/index.php">http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/R-3.1.2-200601181600/index.php</a>.</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> Eclipse does not include a Java runtime environment (JRE). You will need a 1.4.2 level or higher Java
runtime or Java development kit (JDK) installed on your machine in order to run Eclipse. Read this page <a
href="http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/R-3.1.2-200601181600/java-runtimes.html">http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/R-3.1.2-200601181600//java-runtimes.html</a>
if you need help finding a Java runtime.</p>
<h2>Where to get the Language Packs</h2>
<p>You need to download the language pack corresponding to the Eclipse version you’ve installed. First of all, open this
page <a href="http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/L-3.1.1_Language_Packs-200510051300/index.php">http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/L-3.1.1_Language_Packs-200510051300/index.php</a>
in a web browser. If you’ve downloaded Eclipse JDT Runtime, scroll to the JDT Runtime Language Packs table. If you’ve
downloaded Eclipse PDE SDK, scroll to the PDE SDK Language Packs table, etc. In each of the language packs tables (see
figure 2), the first column of the language packs table tells you what languages are included in the language packs. The
second column contains the language packs for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP. The third column contains the language packs for
Linux (x86/GTK 2).</p>
<img src="images/figure002.png" alt="Figure 2 – Eclipse SDK Language Packs table">
<p>Figure 2 – Eclipse SDK Language Packs table</p>
<h2>Installing the Language Packs</h2>
<p>Let’s say you want to install the language packs for Traditional Chinese for Windows XP, you’d download <a
href="http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/L-3.1.1_Language_Packs-200510051300/download.php?dropFile=NLpack1-eclipse-SDK-3.1.1a-win32.zip">NLpack1-eclipse-SDK-3.1.1a-win32.zip</a>
and <a
href="http://download.eclipse.org/downloads/drops/L-3.1.1_Language_Packs-200510051300/download.php?dropFile=NLpack1_FeatureOverlay-eclipse-SDK-3.1.1.zip">NLpack1_FeatureOverlay-eclipse-SDK-3.1.1.zip</a>
(boxed in red in figure 2). To install the language packs, unzip the language packs into the same directory where
Eclipse is installed (for example, <code><i>D:\eclipse-SDK-3.1.1-win32</i></code>). To verify you have successfully
installed the language packs, select the <code><i>Help&gt;Software Updates&gt;Manage Configuration</i></code> pull down
menu in Eclipse. In the <code><i>Product Configuration</i></code> dialog (see figure 3) expand the navigation tree on
the left. You should see one language pack feature corresponding to each Eclipse feature installed.</p>
<img src="images/figure003.png" alt="Figure 3 - Product Configuration dialog">
<p>Figure 3 - Product Configuration dialog</p>
<h2>Launching Eclipse in a Different Language</h2>
<p>Once you have Eclipse and the language packs installed, there are two different ways to launch Eclipse in a different
language:</p>
<ul>
<li>If your operating system is running in the language you want to start Eclipse in (for example, you are using
Japanese version of Windows XP, and you want to start Eclipse in Japanese), all you have to do is to run the Eclipse
executable included with the release. On Windows, the executable file is called <code><i>eclipse.exe</i></code>, and is
located in the <code><i>eclipse</i></code> subdirectory of the install. If Eclipse is installed at <code><i>D:\eclipse-SDK-3.1.1-win32</i></code>,
the executable is <code><i>D:\eclipse-SDK-3.1.1-win32\eclipse\eclipse.exe</i></code>.</li>
<li>However, if your operating system is running in a language other than the one you want to start Eclipse in (for
example, you are using English version of Windows XP, and you want to start Eclipse in Japanese, provided that you have
the required operating system language support including the keyboard layouts and input method editors installed), you
have to specify the <code><i>-nl &lt;locale&gt;</i></code> command line argument when you launch Eclipse.</li>
<p>On Windows, there are two ways to specify command line arguments for Eclipse:</p>
<ul>
<li>Command line</li>
<ul>
<li>Open a Windows Command Prompt</li>
<li>Change directory to the <code><i>eclipse</i></code> subdirectory of where Eclipse is installed (for example, <code><i>D:\eclipse-SDK-3.1.1-win32\eclipse</i><code>)</code></code></li>
<li>Enter the following command to launch Eclipse in Japanese:<br />
<code><i>eclipse.exe –nl ja</i></code><br />
<img src="images/figure004.png" alt="Enter the following command to launch Eclipse in Japanese: eclipse.exe –nl ja"></li>
</ul>
<li>Windows shortcut</li>
<ul>
<li>Create a shortcut for the Eclipse executable file (for example, <code><i>D:\eclipse-SDK-3.1.1-win32\eclipse\eclipse.exe</i></code>)</li>
<li>Select <code><i>Properties</i></code> from the popup menu for the shortcut</li>
<li>Append the <code><i>–nl ja</i></code> command line argument  to the end of the <code><i>Target</i></code> field<br />
<img src="images/figure005.png" alt="Append the –nl ja command line argument  to the end of the Target field"></li>
<li>Click <code><i>OK</i></code> to save the changes</li>
<li>Double-click the shortcut to launch Eclipse in Japanese</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<p><b>Note:</b> Mac OS X 10.3 Panther is not a supported operating system for the language packs for Eclipse 3.1. See
the <b>Launching Eclipse on Traditional Chinese Mac OS X 10.3 Panther</b> section later in this article for more
information.</p>
<p>On Mac OS X, if you need to pass arguments to Eclipse, you'll have to edit the <code><i>Info.plist</i></code> file
inside the Eclipse application bundle:</p>
<ul>
<li>Select the Eclipse application bundle icon while holding down the Control key (this will present you with a popup
menu)</li>
<li>Select <code><i>Show Package Contents</i></code> in the popup menu<br />
<img src="images/figure006.png" alt="Select Show Package Contents in the popup menu"></li>
<li>Locate the <code><i>Info.plist</i></code> file in the <code><i>Contents</i></code> subfolder and open it with your
favorite text editor</li>
<li>Add the command line option <code><i>&lt;string&gt;-nl&lt;/string&gt;&lt;string&gt;ja&lt;/string&gt;</i></code> at
the end of the <code><i>Eclipse</i></code> key<br />
<img src="images/figure007.png"
alt="Add the command line option &lt;string&gt;-nl&lt;/string&gt;&lt;string&gt;ja&lt;/string&gt; at the end of the Eclipse key"></li>
<li>Save the changes</li>
<li>Double-click the Eclipse application bundle icon to launch Eclipse in Japanese</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<p>The following are a few examples of launching Eclipse in different languages in different environments. We assume
you've installed all the NLpack1, NLpack2, NLpackBidi, NLpack1_FeatureOverlay, NLpack2_FeatureOverlay, and
NLpackBidi_FeatureOverlay language packs.</p>
<h3>Launching Eclipse on Russian Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 4</h3>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="200"><b>Operating system:</b></td>
<td>Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Processor architecture:</b></td>
<td>Intel x86</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Window system:</b></td>
<td>GTK</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Language:</b></td>
<td>Russian</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Note:</b> Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 4 Update 2 is required to run Eclipse in DBCS languages (Simplified Chinese,
Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> When using the IBM JRE version 1.4.2 on Linux, specify the <code><i>-vmargs -Xj9</i></code> command line
argument when you launch Eclipse. Refer to the readme file that accompanies the IBM JRE for more information.</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> If you need to specify both the <code><i>-nl &lt;locale&gt;</i></code> and <code><i>-vmargs -Xj9</i></code>
command line arguments, make sure to specify <code><i>-vmargs -Xj9</i></code> as the last argument (for example, <code><i>./eclipse
-nl ru –vmargs –Xj9</i></code>).</p>
<ul>
<li>Open <code><i>Applications&gt;System Settings&gt;Language</i></code></li>
<li>Select <code><i>Russian – Pycc&#1082;&#1080;&#1081;</i></code> from the language selection list box<br />
<img src="images/figure008.png" alt="Select Russian – Pycc&#1082;&#1080;&#1081; from the language selection list box"></li>
<li>Click <code><i>OK</i></code> to save the changes</li>
<li>Log out and log back in to Linux to apply the language selection</li>
<li>Open a Terminal</li>
<li>Change directory to the <code><i>eclipse</i></code> subdirectory of where Eclipse is installed (for example, ~/<code><i>eclipse-SDK-3.1.1-linux-gtk/eclipse</i></code><code>)</code></li>
<li>Enter the following command to launch Eclipse in Russian:<br />
<code><i>./eclipse –vmargs –Xj9</i></code><br />
<img src="images/figure009.png" alt="Enter the following command to launch Eclipse in Russian: eclipse –vmargs –Xj9"></li>
</ul>
<h3>Launching Eclipse on Arabic Windows XP</h3>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="200"><b>Operating system:</b></td>
<td>Microsoft Windows XP</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Processor architecture:</b></td>
<td>Intel x86</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Window system:</b></td>
<td>Win32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Language:</b></td>
<td>Arabic</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Note:</b> By default, if Eclipse is launched using the Eclipse executable, Eclipse is always displayed in LTR
(left-to-right), no matter what language the operating system is set to. You have to specify the <code><i>–dir rtl</i></code>
command line argument when you launch Eclipse to display Eclipse in RTL (right-to-left) orientation.</p>
<ul>
<li>Open <code><i>Start&gt;Settings&gt;Control Panel&gt;Regional and Language Options</i></code></li>
<li>Switch to the <code><i>Advanced</i></code> tab</li>
<li>Select <code><i>Arabic (Egypt)</i></code> from the <code><i>Language for non-Unicode programs</i></code> dropdown
list<br />
<img src="images/figure010.png" alt="Select Arabic (Egypt) from the Language for non-Unicode programs"></li>
<li>Click <code><i>OK</i></code> to save the changes</li>
<li>Restart Windows to apply the regional and language options</li>
<li>Open a Windows Command Prompt</li>
<li>Change directory to the <code><i>eclipse</i></code> subdirectory of where Eclipse is installed (for example, <code><i>D:\eclipse-SDK-3.1.1-win32\eclipse</i></code><code>)</code></li>
<li>Enter the following command to launch Eclipse in Arabic:<br />
<code><i>eclipse.exe –dir rtl</i></code><br />
<img src="images/figure011.png" alt="Enter the following command to launch Eclipse in Arabic: eclipse.exe –dir rtl"></li>
</ul>
<h3>Launching Eclipse on Traditional Chinese Mac OS X 10.3 Panther</h3>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="200"><b>Operating system:</b></td>
<td>Apple Mac OS X 10.3 Panther</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Processor architecture:</b></td>
<td>PowerPC</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Window system:</b></td>
<td>Carbon</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Language:</b></td>
<td>Traditional Chinese</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><b>Note:</b> Mac OS X 10.3 Panther is not a supported operating system for the language packs for Eclipse 3.1.
However, most of the translations from the language packs for Eclipse 3.1 on Linux, except a few platform dependent
strings for SWT, should display. For those SWT strings with no translations, English strings will be displayed.</p>
<ul>
<li>Open the <code><i>System Preferences</i></code> dialog</li>
<li>Select <code><i>International</i></code></li>
<li>Drag <code><i>Traditional Chinese</i></code> in the Languages list to the top<br />
<img src="images/figure012.png" alt="Drag Traditional Chinese in the Languages list to the top"></li>
<li>Close the <code><i>International</i></code> dialog</li>
<li>Double-click the Eclipse application bundle icon to launch Eclipse in Traditional Chinese<br />
<img src="images/figure013.png"
alt="Double-click the Eclipse application bundle icon to launch Eclipse in Traditional Chinese"></li>
</ul>
<h2>Language Packs for other Eclipse Projects</h2>
<p>Translations for the following Eclipse Projects and Subprojects for Eclipse 3.1 are also available. Here is a list of
the projects and where the language packs can be found:</p>
<p><b>Eclipse Tools Project</b><br />
</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Visual Editor (VE)</b><br />
<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/vep/WebContent/docs/translations/translation.html" target="_top">http://www.eclipse.org/vep/WebContent/docs/translations/translation.html</a></li>
<li><b>UML2</b><br />
<a href="http://download.eclipse.org/tools/uml2/scripts/downloads.php" target="_top">http://download.eclipse.org/tools/uml2/scripts/downloads.php</a></li>
<li><b>Graphical Editor Framework (GEF)</b><br />
<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/gef/translations/translation.html" target="_top">http://www.eclipse.org/gef/translations/translation.html</a></li>
<li><b>EMF / XSD<br />
</b><a href="http://download.eclipse.org/tools/emf/scripts/downloads.php#NLS21" target="_top">http://download.eclipse.org/tools/emf/scripts/downloads.php#NLS21</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b>Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) Project</b><br />
<a href="http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/downloads/translations/M-0.7.1-200509270720/translation.html">http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/downloads/translations/M-0.7.1-200509270720/translation.html</a></p>
<p><b>Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform (TPTP) Project</b><br />
<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/tptp/home/downloads/drops/TPTP-4.0.1.html">http://www.eclipse.org/tptp/home/downloads/drops/TPTP-4.0.1.html</a></p>
<p>The same installation process described above could be used to install these language packs.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Thanks to the contributions of these language packs to the Eclipse Foundation, Eclipse users all over the world could
feel much closer to home as Eclipse speaks their local lingo!</p>
<h2>Trademarks</h2>
<p>IBM and PowerPC are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other
countries, or both.</p>
<p>Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or
both.</p>
<p>Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.</p>
<p>Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.</p>
<p>Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.</p>
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