Translating

The interface is in eighteen languages. English (Strings.resx) and Norwegian Bokmål (Strings.nb.resx) are written by hand; the other sixteen started as machine translations and are marked so in the app's language list. A native speaker fixing even a few of them is the most useful small contribution there is.

Where the strings are

SpaceSharp.Core/Resources/Strings*.resx, one file per language, one <data name="Key"> entry per string. The key is the same in every file; the English file is the reference.

<data name="Changes_Gone" xml:space="preserve"><value>Gone</value></data>

Placeholders like {0} and {1:N0} are filled in by the app and must stay; move them around freely to suit the language. {1:N0} is a number with thousands separators.

Fixing a translation

1. Find the key in Strings.resx to see the English and its context (the key names say where it is used: Settings_, Insights_, Changes_, Key_).
2. Change the <value> in Strings.<culture>.resx. Keep the tone of the rest of the app: short, plain, no jargon, and the app's own names for things (Insights, Safe to clear, Changes).
3. Keep every {0}-style placeholder the English has; the app fills them in, and a missing one shows as a gap. A key missing from a translation falls back to English rather than breaking anything.
4. Run dotnet test, then send a pull request. Say which language you speak natively; that is the review.

Each translation file has a Meta_MachineTranslated entry; true is what makes Settings › General mark the language as machine-made. When a language has been checked through by a native speaker, set it to false in the same pull request and the note comes off.

Adding a language

1. Copy Strings.resx to Strings.<culture>.resx with the culture code Windows uses (pt-BR, cs, fi, …).
2. Translate the values. There are about a thousand; the machine-translated files are an acceptable starting point if you would rather correct than write.
3. Set Meta_MachineTranslated in the new file to true or false as the case may be.
4. dotnet test, then a pull request. The app discovers translation files by their culture code, so the language appears in Settings › General on its own, sorted among the reviewed or the machine-made ones.

Right-to-left languages work: the window mirrors itself when the culture is right-to-left. To check your translation in that state, start the app with --rtl, or press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R in a running one, and Ctrl+Shift+Alt+L to list any text that no longer fits (Building from source). A translation that is much longer than the English will show up there.

What not to translate

• The filter's grammar (over, older than, videos): it is parsed, not shown, and English in every language. The drawer writes it for people.
• Keys, placeholders and the SpaceSharp name.
• File and folder names the app found on the disk, obviously, and Windows' own names such as Recycle Bin where the language has an established term; use that term.